Software has gone from being static to dynamic to updating itself through a network connection instead of relying on the user to update the system.
The most obvious implementation of this is the Automatic Updates feature in Windows, which periodically checks with Microsoft to see if there are updated versions of system components or critical bug fixes available. But this mechanism only patches Windows itself. It doesn't alert the user if there are existing upgrades for other programs in the system. Even Microsoft Office can't be updated through Windows Updates; it is typically updated through the Office Update website.
Third-party programs are becoming, by and large, self-updating as well. The popular Web browser Firefox, for instance, can sense if a newer version exists and updates itself as needed. That leaves an open question: What do you do about programs that don't have this capacity? If you don't want to be bothered with the hassle of updating programs yourself, what can you do?
There is as yet no broadly adopted, industry-wide standard for automatic software updates (most program developers prefer to use their own implementation of the concept), so third-party companies have had to step in and provide their own answers.
One such answer is VersionTracker
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Pro, a subscription service. The site, which originally offered software updates for Macintosh software, later expanded to include Windows and even Palm OS, keeps tabs on the latest versions of almost every program imaginable -- commercial, shareware and freeware. The VersionTracker Pro service, which is $79.95 for one year, lets you install an agent on up to 10 separate computers that periodically scans installed software on the system. It matches what it finds against any updated versions in the VersionTracker database and updates the software automatically if there's a newer version. (At one point, CNET had a similar service called CatchUp, but it appears to have been permanently discontinued.)
A larger solution, one aimed at networks rather than desktops, is Macrovision's FLEXnet Publisher Update Service Module, formerly Zero G Software's PowerUpdate. PowerUpdate was designed for managed environments where an administrator maintains the software to be updated and rolled out, but FLEXnet also can be used to deliver updates to end users if you're a software publisher yourself.
The local publishing functionality of FLEXnet is similar to Microsoft's own Systems Management Server 2003, although FLEXNet Publisher can work side by side with that system and provides advantages of its own (such as elective updates). For workgroups with no server, these solutions are likely to be overkill (or wholly undeployable!), but if you're moving toward running a server in your network and more closely managing the desktops in it, they're worth looking into.
Serdar Yegulalp is editor of the Windows Power Users Newsletter. Let us know what you think about this tip; email editor@searchcio-midmarket.com.
This was first published in November 2005
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