Skip to Content

Summer Budget Travel Tips from Gadling
AOL Tech

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Windows, Shareware, Freeware, Beta

UpdateStar keeps your software up to date

UpdateStar
There are plenty of ways to check to see if your software needs updating. You can manually visit the website for each program you run on a regular basis. Or if you'd rather use a method that doesn't take all day, you can install an application that will check for updates automatically.

While we like File Hippo Update Checker and AppSnap, UpdateStar might just take the blue ribbon when it comes to freeware software updaters. UpdateStar won't automatically download and install software like AppSnap, but it makes up for that deficiency by offering a huge library of programs. It catches all sorts of installed and updateable software that the other programs miss.

UpdateStar will automatically scan your PC and search for any of 8000 applications. When it detects those programs on your computer it will check to see if newer versions are available. When you click on an application you get a brief description and a link to download the newer version.

Odds are you'll still have a few applications on your PC that UpdateStar will miss, including any application that didn't have an installer file. But of the update checkers we've tried, UpdateStar appears to be the most powerful.

[via gHacks]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

CiviballsI have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Download Squad bloggers (30 days)

#BloggerPostsCmts
1Lee Mathews7979
2Brad Linder684
3Jay Hathaway671
4Jason Clarke312
5Grant Robertson912
6Christina Warren29
7Nik Fletcher20

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio