Monitor All Available Software Updates with SUMO

Posted on February 1, 2008 at 6:33 am

Can you give me a list of outdated software programs residing inside your personal computer? If you can’t, you are in for some serious trouble. There are reasons why software updates exist, and it is not just for showing off some new, cool features. The most important aspect of a software update (sometimes) is that it patches security loopholes that can allow malicious users or programs to take control or harm your computer. Imagine having multiple outdated, hack-prone software programs running inside your PC, eerie right?

“Software Update Monitor” or SUMO in short is a free program that monitors all installed software inside your computer, providing you with a list of available updates for them, in just few simple clicks.

How to Use Software Update Monitor (SUMO)

To get started, download SUMO and install it as any normal Windows application. Click on SUMO’s icon on the desktop to launch it.

check-updates-for-software-with-sumo-image

First, click on “Automatically detect installed software” button to let SUMO scans your personal computer for already installed applications. Once it has finished, click the next “Check for updates for your installed software” button to let SUMO connect to the Internet and check for software updates of your previously scanned software list. Click the “Close” button to access SUMO’s main interface.

SUMO will list all installed applications in a simple, multiple columns list. There are 3 icons that show a software’s current status:

Triangular exclamation mark - Really outdated software. These ones need to be updated as soon as possible.
Yellow star - Updates available. Not as critical as above.
Green tick mark - These software are updated. No problem here.

To get an update for any software, select it from the list and click the “Get Update” button. You will be taken SUMO’s web page where you can check out how long your software had not been updated (based on the software’s version list). You can find updates for your software from the search function on the page. I hope the next version of SUMO will provide the actual link to a particular software’s update page, which is sadly, unavailable for this version.

sumo-software-updates-page-shows-current-version-of-installed-software

Another important feature is that you can drag and drop software executables inside SUMO’s interface to find out if there are any updates for it, even before it is installed on your PC! However, this depends on the availability of version information inside the software installer’s properties. Other features of SUMO include the ability to export software updates list to MS Excel spreadsheet / text file, HTTP proxy support and the option to run SUMO at Windows startup.

SUMO is far from perfect but it really eases the process by monitoring and scanning all available software updates for you in one shot. That IMHO, has already makes this software a must have. Try SUMO today and stay updated with the latest software!

This is a guest post written by Syahid A. from TechMalaya.com

Tags: sumo, software updates, software update monitor, update software, monitor software

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One Response to “Monitor All Available Software Updates with SUMO”

Keep your computer up to date with UpdateChecker Says:

[...] commercial of paid software. I had written about another program called SUMO earlier that aimed to monitor all software for available updates. Another program that you can use to download software updates, patches, and upgrades is [...]
April 13th, 2008 at 9:06 am