As the Chief Information Security Officer of a large multinational company, I am willing to look under any stone to provide a safer more secure computing environment for my company.

Like a large company, there is one characteristic that is likely increasing your risk profile and making you more susceptible to hackers, malware and virus. Old not updated software. Old software has many more bugs that can be exploited to commandeer your computer.

Secunia PSI is your solution

The fine folks at Secunia offer their Personal Software Inspector for FREE!

What does it do?

It scans your computer at pre-determined intervals and identifies software that is missing patches or updates. It's built in database supports over 3000 software so your programs will likely be identified.

If you allow it, the program can even automatically download updates for most of your programs and automatically install them in the background.

If for some reason it can't install an automatic update, it will show a notification balloon asking you to download and install the update (it will usually provide a direct link to the download anyway).

Simple and easy to use

In its default configuration, the program automatically launches on boot and does its magic in the background. For the less computer literate, it is almost completely hands-off (which is a good thing).

Verdict

Companies pay lots of money to buy programs that do the same thing and its great to see companies bring this technology to the consumer market in a free and easy to use package. Secunia PSI is one of the first software I install on any new Windows PC so obviously my recommendation is Two thumbs up.