There is no end in sight to the parade of malware exploits that make use of vulnerabilities in popular Windows-based programs. If you are not sure of your system's vulnerability or don't trust the automatic notifications that you receive from some programs, you should consider running a scan on a regular basis to determine what programs need to be updated. Two facilities that I have used and trust are:
- FileHippo - You can download popular program updates from their home page, or install and run their free Update Checker for a scan of the most popular programs installed on your PC. You can choose to have it run every time you start Windows or just run it on demand. The results are displayed on a convenient web page where you can click and download any updates you need or want. They include beta versions of programs that you may or may not want to use. This scanner identifies version updates for a select group of popular programs, not every program installed on your system. The updates are not all associated with patching security holes. Below is a screen shot fragment that shows the scan results I obtained today. Click on the image for a full-size view.
- Secunia Online Software Inspector - This scanner concentrates on identifying vulnerable programs on your PC. It also provides a web page report with links to the updated program versions. It is a Java applet and so requires Java to run. Below is a screen shot fragment that shows the scan results I obtained today. Click on the image for a full-size view.
Scanning takes only a few minutes on most systems. Downloading and installing the updates may take some time, especially if you have many outdated programs, but all experts in the field of computer security agree that patching vulnerabilities is very important to the overall secure use of your computer.
