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Keep Windows Up to Date Quickly with Appupdater
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 1:00 AM on December 20, 2007
Windows only: Install and remove programs, update all your applications at once and build your own Linux-style repository for Windows with AppUpdater, an unassuming but powerful free program for Windows. Similar to the Apt or Yum applications in Linux, AppUpdater saves you browsing time and guess work while installing from a big list of programs, including a number of Lifehacker favorites—but you can roll your own repository of programs as well. But Appupdater is more than just a low-tech installer—its real power lies in two simple commands.
Once you've got a good set of programs installed, you simply run (or schedule an automatic process to run) two lines from the Windows command prompt to make sure you've got the latest of everything:
appupdater --updateLike its Linux parents, Appupdater has a large number of switches for advanced functions, but its basic features are real time savers. Appupdater is a free download that works with Windows 98 and later systems.
appupdater --upgrade
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
strats
Posted 7:13 AM 19/12/07
Has anyone used this yet for XP?
strats
ron___b
Posted 8:56 AM 19/12/07
is there any sort of OSX equivalent?
ron___b
dekay46
Posted 9:35 AM 19/12/07
I tried it on Vista.. It didn't find any updates. I really prefer FileHippo's Update Checker.
dekay46
Mortimer
Posted 9:02 AM 19/12/07
For OS X, you should try appfresh:
[metaquark.de]
(not sure it's been featured here).
Then, you can go to macports or Fink. MacPorts in particular can also install and update .apps
Mortimer
eeefresh
Posted 10:58 AM 19/12/07
Wow, this looks really cool! I have been using FileHippo's Updater as well, but if this performs all the updates from the command line, it will be faster than downloading the exe files.
Kevin - Does AppUpdater let you schedule the updates itself, or would you have to do that with another program?
eeefresh
Therevan
Posted 10:14 AM 19/12/07
@dekay46: Do you have any of the programs from that list installed? I should note that I just did a fresh Vista install last week, so I'm not surprised it only found updates for Adobe and Java.
Therevan
technotolitan
Posted 6:48 AM 19/12/07
I am curious who might be using this now, and what your experiences have been thus far. It sounds like an interesting little app, but I am wary of not being personally involved in each update upgrade. How is it's error reporting? I will probably throw this on my test box later to check it out, but feedback would be great.
technotolitan
nikoPSK
Posted 12:09 PM 19/12/07
bah! linux is still better.
nikoPSK
Therevan
Posted 2:08 PM 19/12/07
@eeefresh: I believe it's an option at installation to have the program run at Windows start, but you might have to use Windows' scheduler to have it run a command every so often. I'll be looking into it!
Therevan
HeartBurnKid
Posted 4:06 PM 19/12/07
@eeefresh: Get an HP; I hear their Linux support is phenomenal.
HeartBurnKid
eeefresh
Posted 3:35 PM 19/12/07
@nikoPSK: I agree that Linux is better, but until my printer works with Ubuntu, I still have to dual-boot.
eeefresh
brianary
Posted 4:13 PM 19/12/07
@brianary:
...?
I'd love to use a good package manager for Windows, but it kind of defeats the time savings if I have to install and comprehensively compare all of them.
brianary
brianary
Posted 4:10 PM 19/12/07
I'm using Ubuntu at home, but it's nice to keep stuff at work up-to-date.
Will Lifehacker eventually do a roundup/comparison of AppUpdater, win-get, app-get, UpdateStar, AppSnap, filehippo.com Update Checker, PSI - Personal Software Inspector - Secunia, etc.
brianary
eeefresh
Posted 5:18 AM 20/12/07
Has anyone else tried this? I ran it from the command line and got an error. I tried using the Windows interface and it didn't give me any errors. But later I ran FileHippo and it found 16 updates, many of which were on the Appupdater list. Could be user error, though...
eeefresh
aproger
Posted 7:51 PM 19/12/07
app2date (app2date.com) performs a subset of this functionality (it notifies of application releases) and can be customized (apps can be added or deleted)
aproger
dekay46
Posted 2:01 PM 21/12/07
@Therevan:
7 Zip
AOL Instant Messenger
AbiWord
Ad Aware
Adobe Reader
Audacity
Firefox
Flash
Inkscape
Java
Opera
QuickTime
Shockwave
Spybot
SyncToy
VLC
WinMerge
WinSCP
Windows Media Player
I'd say I've got a few. Would have thought it would have at least found something.
dekay46
shane_mckinley
Posted 1:55 PM 21/12/07
Thanks for the featured article Kevin! :)
Merry Christmas from Hackosis to LifeHacker!
shane_mckinley
rraheja
Posted 7:06 PM 21/12/07
Tried it for XP and it did not reliably detect all the software that it claims it supports e.g. did not detect my Thunderbird 2.0 installation.
Updates of supported software e.g. RealPlayer failed from its own site with checksum failure.
It also shows multiple versions of the same software e.g. Flash shows two versions 6.0 and 9.0 although Windows Add/Remove Programs only shows that I have 9.0 isntalled. Same for Windows Media Player (11.0 and 9.0). It then tries to update the non-existent older version and fails.
I was hoping that this would be the ultimate package manager...but found it very lacking. the search is on...
rraheja