Solved Secunia PSI v2: Support ends 3/31/17. Suggestions for a replacement?

[spc3rd]

Good morning everyone,

With support/updates ending for Secunia PSI v2 ending on March 31st, I am seeking recommendations for a decent, similar program to replace it.

Secunia PSI v3 has been fraught with many problems since its release some time back, and from what I've been able to see at the Secunia/Flexera Forums - version 3 continues to have major issues. When I had it installed on another computer (Win 7), the program icon in the Systray area was almost always greyed-out, and despite rebooting, it seemed to take an excessively long time to even try to load at all. I subsequently uninstalled v3 and went back to PSI v2.

I'd heard about FileHippo once, but from what I've seen over the last few years, it doesn't seem to be as good as PSI, and I'd also heard it now has a lot of bloatware as well.

Thank you for your time and any recommendations!

 

[gini]

My problems with Secunia PSI v. 3.0 haven't been as consistently bad as yours, but I've never found the updating choice to work well. I've begun using Kaspersky Software Updater, and I'm very happy with it. It's light, fast, and quickly responds to update the programs you indicate. See what you think.

 

[spc3rd]

Secunia PSI v2: Support ends 3/31/17. Suggestions for a replacement?

Much obliged for that info, gini!

For some reason, I had a hard time getting the Secunia PSI v2 program to uninstall (via Control Panel > Programs and Features). The UN-installation process started, but the progress bar just wasn't moving at all for over 20 minutes. Couldn't even stop two of the Secunia processes via Task Manager either. (An "access denied" message, despite being logged-on as Administrator).:banghead:
I had to do some tinkering around, but finally got it off this machine.

Did some reading about the Kaspersky Software Updater on their website, as well as, a couple of reviews elsewhere before deciding to download and install it about 20 minutes ago. It seems pretty simple to understand (which is ideal for a non-techie type person like me).

From what I saw on the Kaspersky site, the list of compatible programs for which it can check for updates seems a bit limited at present. Hopefully, they will be able to add more applications to that list in the future.

I set it for manual updating instead of a regularly-scheduled one, then ran a scan. Only one program was shown as needing an update - CCleaner. (Which I expected - since I always wait until the slim version of CCleaner is available before updating it).

Thanks very much again for your recommendation!

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I stopped using Secunia PSI quite a while back because it was slow as dead turtle with four broken legs and kept insisting that I needed to update a program not on my computer (it was on my previous one but I had uninstalled it prior to building my present computer).

I use the free version Glary Utilities and it has a feature that quickly informs me if there are any updates to most of my programs.

 

[DavidE]

Thanks for the heads-up about PSI 2 coming to end of support.
I like PSI 2 a lot better than PSI 3.

PSI isn't really a program update checker, it checks for missing security patches and end of life programs.
For security auditing i also use Belarc Advisor and Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer.
Products: Belarc Advisor

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7558

For a program update checker i use SUMo portable.
It lists more programs than any other update checker i've used.
KC Softwares

Here's a Wilders Security Forums thread about SUMo
SUMo : Keep your software up to date | Wilders Security Forums
The SUMo author/owner is very active and helpful in that thread.

 

[spc3rd]

Secunia PSI v2: Support ends 3/31/17. Suggestions for a replacement?

Hi Jeannie and David,

Thank you both for your respective replies and the additional info!
I'll take a look at the other programs you mentioned, to gain a little more 'enlightenment' about how they work, as well. On my previous Win 7 computer (which bit the dust not long ago) - I did have the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer application installed. Haven't yet gotten around to installing it on this refurbished, replacement computer a friend gave me though.

Cheers!

 

[gini]

Much obliged for that info, gini! . . .

Thanks very much again for your recommendation!

I'm glad to have helped — lots of great suggestions here, and I'll be looking at the other programs suggested, too. BTW, thank you for your own info on Secunia! I didn't know their PSI utility would be ending support soon. Time to uninstall!

 

[Callender]

Also worth a look: Patch My PC Updater although configuration might be an issue for some users.

RE: SUMo - Pretty good but user need to decide which updates are actually required and source them and download and install them. Also you need the LITE version to avoid bundled unwanted extras.

Also I use this sometimes:

​

I've obscured the program name because it's main purpose is software installs with monitoring and tracing but it's tricky to use if you don't know which items/ registry locations to remove from the monitored install list of program traces when uninstalling. That's because it monitors all changes when installing software - even those changes in the background caused by other software running other than the monitored program.

 

[spc3rd]

Greetings again, gini and hello Callender!

(For gini): I only learned about the end of support/updates for Secunia v2 when I started getting popups from the program at intermittent times during the day. That's when I checked the Secunia/Flexera Forums and noticed a number of posts confirming it.

(For Callender): Much obliged...as always...to you for the detailed info you provided!

No doubt, it will take me a while to read through & hopefully understand all the info on each of the programs everyone has graciously-provided here. (Not as easy as it once was in my younger days).icnic:

Thanks again everyone!