T1B

Ok so most of us have set up our windows boxes to update regularly on its own but windows update only covers MS Windows and other MS products like MS Office. And it only does that if you are running windows 2000 or XP. What happens to all the other programs? There are 3rd party products out there that will tell you how secure your computer is and some of them will find and update all your installed programs on your computer. These aren't enterprise level systems, but they work great for home computers.

Recently there have been a lot of holes noted in 3rd party software, along with OS and MS vulnerabilities. Most spyware and adware is installed through software vulnerabilities in IE, firefox and other web facing softwares. Here are some software that you can play with to get you a little more secure at home, esepcially if you have kids and family that browse websites that are prone to spyware/adware.

Here is a list:

Secunia PSI - https://psi.secunia.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Secunia is a fairly well known security company that searches for vulnerability. They have a free tool that looks at whats installed on your PC and and looks for vulnerable software as well as leftovers from deleted/uninstalled software. Its a fairly decent tool and its free.

UpdateStar - http://www.updatestar.com/en/download/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This keeps track of all the software that is installed and will take you to any updates...but you have to download and install those on your own.

SUMo - http://www.kcsoftwares.com/?sumo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Another free utility that will check your software to see if there are new ones available.

VersionTracker - CNET free trial service - http://www.versiontracker.com/windows/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Look for it on the right side of the screen. Lots of windows tools are listed on that page as well.

Radarsync - http://www.radarsync.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This is a service that will run an online check of your machine to look for updated software, drivers and other PC issues. It runs the check for free but if you want to download and update through the service you have to pay.

Update Checker - http://filehippo.com/updatechecker/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This is another online service that you run the client on your machine, and it looks for outdated software on your machine.

Belarc Advisor - http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I've used this software before and it works very well. This is not so much an update software as a system check that looks for Windows updates, Antivirus updates and system health and status and builds a local webpage that it displays in your browser to rate your system's health. Its fairly similar to another product by Microsoft...

Microsoft Baseline Security Analizer (MBSA) - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/securi ... ahome.mspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Works very similar to the Belarc Advisor but its mainly for the MS products. Looks for software updates, open accounts, patches and common problems for windows. Does not really do common updates and 3rd party updates.

I tried Secunia. Easy to install, works similarly to lavasoft ad-aware type programs that give you multiple lists of various types of programs, except in this case they are on different clickable menus, "Insecure" "End of life" and "Patched".

It's easy to use and understand. The Jury is still out about the part where you have to decipher if some of the programs on the Insecure list are problems worth dealing with or not.

For example, I have 4 older updates of java runtime environment (JRE) that are listed as "Insecure". I don't see where they represent any kind of real security risk, as the latest update should have included the fixes to make it more secure. However, it is nice to see where I can remove unnecessary stuff.

One oddity is that it lists my avast virus protection program as insecure, when it actually updates the virus list itself daily automatically, and periodically updates the program shell the same way. It may be Pro vs free?

You certainly still have to do a little homework so as not to fuck up certain programs, but this program seems harmless enough, and is a pretty cool tool to see what you've got that is outdated.

It also has a more complete and extended list of hard to update programs.

I also have one "end of life" program - Adobe Acrobat Pro 6.0 - that works fine, is not a problem, and I won't be spending the caysh to update it anytime soon to whatever the latest version is.