Most people here know that updating software means having less bugs and having more security.  Unfortunately, most software titles have their own custom-built updaters that are easily ignored and only show up once you open a program.  This can make a person annoyed at a piece of software for crashing, or worse yet actually leave a computer open to viruses or malware.

Image credit: Wikipedia, Locutus

FileHippo Update Checker: a well-designed update checker

Luckily, there are a few updaters that allow someone to easily update a majority of their software with just a few clicks.  From those updaters, FileHippo stands out over its competitors because it has a much better user interface, it lacks false positives, and it’s extremely tiny–under 300KB!

After downloading, just open the updater.  It will immediately launch a no-nonsense scanning window:

In just a matter of seconds, a new browsing window will open.  It’ll have a list of all of your updates, from stable releases to beta software:

As you can see, I haven’t updated CCleaner in a while.

To download the updates, just hit the green arrows next to the software name.  You’ll be linked to the installer, which in the case of the CCleaner installer, was the version without the toolbar–no need to watch for toolbars!

Conclusion

Unfortunately, updaters aren’t perfect, and there is no way to detect all software and all updates.  For instance, I had v1.1.4 of VLC Media Player installed; v1.1.7 was released last night (and FileHippo even has v1.1.7 on their site).  However, it did find updates for most of the software that needed updates, and one out of ~60 pieces of software isn’t bad at all.

Version reviewed: v1.038 portable

Download size: 247kb

Supported OS: Windows 7/Vista/XP/2003/2000/ME/98 with .NET 2.0

FileHippo.com Update Checker download page | installer | portable

Bonus points to anyone who can name the software titles the versions in the lead picture are.