Friday, November 09, 2007

Secunia Personal Software Inspector (Beta)

Make your PC safer with this utility from Secunia, a company that tracks known vulnerabilities in software and operating systems.

This is one of the most useful and important free tools that you can have running on Windows XP SP2, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003.

This tool examines all of the program files on your PC for information on specific software builds installed and can identify missing Windows patches and outdated, insecure applications on your PC.

After examination, the data collected is sent to Secunia’s secure servers (https://psi.secunia.com/) and matched matched against their Signature Files which then determines the precise applications installed on your system.

Secunia state that they have more than 4,700 different programs in their File Signatures engine.

Once the scan is complete, which only takes a few minutes, Secunia PSI will categorize each program as “Up-To-Date”, “Insecure” or “End-of-Life”.

Click images for larger view

The results table presents the name and version number of your installed application. Clicking on the file name or the green information button will take you to a summary page with further information. If there is a blue button this will link directly to the file that will update or patch your software, if available.

On the summary page you will also receive a link to Secunia’s advisory about why your version is not safe, and explanations of the multiple versions of a program that you may see listed, as well as available updates and download locations.

Although Secunia PSI is not perfect, and it is still in Beta version, it is fairly useful at keeping your computer programs up-to-date, which also aids in your system security.

Secunia’s privacy statement states that they store information about your software for up to 12 months, but it does not collect any personal data beyond version numbers.

Download Secunia PSI here.

Note: The free Secunia PSI is available for Private/Home Users ONLY

As with any program installation, Backup or create a Restore Point before making any changes.

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