How to update software. Utilities for searching and quickly installing software updates

Every day, when using a computer, we use dozens of programs necessary for the convenience and speed of our work, as well as for entertainment. All of them are written, in turn, by ordinary people and can contain dozens of errors that either clearly affect their operation (“software glitches”), or are completely invisible to the end user, but can slow down the program or create unnecessary “garbage” (“garbage”). software bugs"). In this regard, after the release of any software and detection of errors, developers release updates to it. They serve as a “patch” existing errors and introducing additional, new functionality into the software.

Different operating systems implement software update functions differently. Now let's find out how to update software in them.

Software update in Windows

In order to update all software provided by Microsoft, as well as the operating system, just go to the “Start” menu and in the “All Programs” section select “Center” Windows updates" After this, you need to click “Search for updates”, select the necessary updates and click “OK”.

In the case of updating third-party software, things are a little more complicated. The fact is that the application store with automatic updates of all installed (purchased) applications appeared only in Windows 8. And even then the list of programs that can be found there is very meager. In order to update all software the old fashioned way in Windows 7 and Windows XP, you can do it quite simply: open the “Add or Remove Programs” (Windows XP) or “Programs and Features” (Windows 7) section, a list of all installed programs and their versions. Now you need to download installers for new versions of your installed programs from the developer sites, then run them one by one and follow all their instructions. There are also programs for automatically updating all software on a computer, but they are very imperfect and cause many problems after their work.

Software update in Linux

If you don't know how to update your computer software, don't worry, it's very simple. Any third-party software, as well as system software, is updated through the built-in update center. Each program registers its own repositories during installation, where developers constantly post updates. You just need to open the “Update Manager” and click the “Search” button. After the list of updates is displayed, select the ones you need and click the “Install” button. After that, enter your password. Ready!

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Programs for monitoring, controlling the relevance of versions of programs installed on the computer automatic search new, latest versions for software products installed on your computer, downloading and installing all updates on your PC, getting rid of potential system vulnerabilities that endanger your data, providing protective functions that are not provided by an antivirus...

More details

It was said earlier that most of the programs described here are free, plus they have an interface in Russian.
Another important aspect for visitors who are looking on the Internet for programs for their personal (home) computer and more.
The main application and use of the utilities presented here is scanning the computer and notifying about the availability of new versions of software products for the software available on the PC.
Now, proceed from the following. Utilities need to “know,” so to speak, almost all the software on the Internet in order to periodically inform the user about the need to update some of the software on his computer to a new version. Accordingly, the program must interact with a huge software database.
So, currently the library of software products with all (old / new) versions is MULTI-MILLION and, as already stated, the program must “know” this library. Therefore, on a number of developer sites "software update programs", on their home pages you can find, perhaps, any program. Some “programs” even have their own online databases (over 2.5 million software products and their versions) - this is much more different software than in some of the largest software catalogs and software portals. In addition, similar web resources publish “honor boards”, i.e. the most popular (downloaded) programs and many others. useful information. For example, there is online services to check the relevance of the versions of programs installed on your PC. If you don’t want or are not ready to install a “software update program” on your computer, just do it “online” and find out what’s “going on” with the software on your computer.
In general, if you ever want to find some computer utilities on the Internet, then visit the “home pages” of some program sites (which are below) (useful and interesting information- a lot).
In conclusion.
New version of any program, this is not only more functionality or better “quality”, but also eliminating problems in VULNERABILITY.
What are we talking about?!!! Anti-viruses, firewalls, spuware and other good computer protection measures still cannot fully protect against threats that penetrate through vulnerabilities installed on the PC. software products.... Read more in the program descriptions below and increase the security of your computer. Don't miss, for example, "Secunia Personal Software Inspector".

Outdated software versions not only deprive us of the opportunity to use new software functions, but also pose a security threat. Hackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in programs, and developers patch these holes.

In addition, updates correct various shortcomings and errors, which allows us to use programmers’ products more comfortably.

Today we’ll talk about how to quickly check and update software on your computer using the program Update the Software. The program scans all installed software for updates and offers to download new versions from the official developer sites.

Download Update Software

Scanning

1. After installation, the program begins scanning your computer.

2. After a short period of time, scan results are displayed, which indicate how many programs are installed on the computer and the number of available updates. The list opposite the program name shows the current one. at the moment version.

Update

1. Here we need to select which programs we want to update. You can do this by clicking on the name in the list, or you can get a list of all updates on the Update Software website by clicking on the button "Download updates".

2. By clicking on the name, we are taken to a page indicating the version of the program being updated on the Update Software website:

3. Next, go to the next page by clicking on the button "Download the program".

4. By clicking on the link indicated in the screenshot, we get to the developer’s website,

download the distribution and install it on your computer.

The update sheet looks like this:

The sheet contains a list of programs that require updating. By clicking on the link, we are immediately taken to a page leading to the developer’s website.

Once the update is complete, you can continue the procedure with other software, or minimize Update Software. The program remains in the system tray, from where you can call it at any time and continue working.

Programs for which updates are available are highlighted in pink.

1. When installing Update Software, uncheck these boxes,

if you do not want to install the presented software.

2. Updating programs from paid license may lead to the loss of the latter, so contact the software support service for more details.

Surely you have not one program installed on your computer, but dozens. And it’s no secret that they also need to be updated periodically. Why do this?!

And you need to do this:

• To use new features in updated programs. It is true that the development of software and computers does not stand still. They develop and become better, and this is realized through new versions of the software.
• To better protect your computer from hacker attacks. Hackers exploit vulnerabilities in old, not updated programs. The same viruses exploit similar vulnerabilities. And the more popular and widespread the software, the higher the likelihood that its vulnerabilities will be exploited. The same developers of famous browsers spend millions of dollars to close holes in their programs.
• To fix existing software problems. Developers constantly monitor the operation of their programs on people’s computers and, through updates, eliminate errors in their operation. There are a lot of different programs installed on the computer that constantly interact with each other. And as a result of such interaction, problems may arise, and the developer must eliminate them in each subsequent version.

These are the main reasons: “Why you need to update the software for your computer.”

Most programs for automatically updating programs work according to two principles:

• You are launching a program. It finds updates for your software and provides download links from official sites. This is the safest and most reliable option. Because you download new versions from the official website.
• The program itself downloads updates for you and installs them. This is already much more convenient than the first option, but there can often be problems. A special program for automatically updating programs may not correctly determine the version of your program, and in the end you will, at best, download and try to install old version, and in the worst case, an attempt will be made to install versions not designed for your Windows version. Therefore, you should always be very careful with such software.

Similar software is also divided into two groups:

• update regular programs. That is, they search for and install updates for simple applications, which run from Windows. This could be software for calls via the Internet, browsers, and so on. These include: Secunia Personal Software Inspector, arambis Software Updater and UpdateStar.
• For example, drivers for various devices, which are located inside the computer ( motherboard, processor, video card, and so on) or connected from outside (media player, Bluetooth adapter, and so on). This software requires more caution, since any errors in its operation or use of it can lead to a crash on the computer. These are programs such as ASUS BIOS Live Update.
• update the operating system. That is, they will help you correctly update, for example, Windows XP to Windows 7. And here, again, before working with such software, it is important to do this. These are programs such as Paragon System Upgrade Utilities 2010 Free Edition.

Many users install new applications from Play Market on your Android smartphone. It happens that a user suddenly notices that a friend has exactly the same application that works differently than his. More precisely, a friend has new features and capabilities in the application, but for some reason our user does not have them. The user has serious doubts that he is using the updated application latest version. The question arises, how to update the application on Android?

Rice. 7. Click “Accept” to give Yandex.Mail permission to use device resources

Click “Accept”, the application update begins, this will take some time.

You can find out which applications are updated and which are not in the Play Market, “My Applications” option, “Updates” tab:

Rice. 8. Message in the Play Market that the Yandex.Mail application has been updated

Setting Up Update Notifications

It happens that update messages arrive completely inappropriately and you want to turn them off. You can turn off the sound that occurs when such updates appear, or block them from receiving them.

To turn off notifications, you need to open the Play Market settings. To do this, you need to follow the steps described above in Figures 1-3. When the “My apps and games” option is open on your Android smartphone, you need to scroll (scroll) the window down so that “Settings” appears (Fig. 9):

Rice. 9. Play Market settings

Open "Settings" Google Play Market, and click “Alerts” (1 in Fig. 10):

Rice. 10. Update notification settings. Application auto-update settings.

Having opened “Alerts”, check the checkboxes. If you DO NOT want to receive notifications about the availability of updates for applications, you need to uncheck the box next to “Updates” (1 in Fig. 11). Also in this case, you should uncheck the box next to “Automatic update” (2 in Fig. 11):

Rice. 11. Check/uncheck the boxes for notifications about updates and for automatic application updates

If you uncheck the boxes, then notifications about the availability of updates and automatic update shouldn't come.

We configure automatic application updates to save Internet traffic

Everyone chooses their own settings for automatic application updates. In Fig. 12 “Only via Wi-Fi” option is selected. It's convenient to