Mac-like Auto-Updates?

[Dario D.]

I love how the software updates on Mac work, and how they seem to update just about any program you have (as far as I can tell).

Is there some 3rd-party program for XP or Vista (or both) that does this? Windows Update is so... limited in what it'll update. I know there are programs that auto-update all of your drivers, but it would be soooo useful if there was some automatic way to do the same for all your ordinary programs (and I have so many).

Anyone know of a program that can do this? Tonight I was going through my list of apps, and checking for updates manually on the program websites. Not fun.

 

[pxc]

I love how the software updates on Mac work, and how they seem to update just about any program you have (as far as I can tell).

As long as the apps are made (almost everything included on a new Mac) or shipped (Java) by Apple. 3rd party applications still have their own updaters, just like on Windows.

If you enable Microsoft Update, that gives similar functionality for Microsoft made apps (not only Windows and certain components like default).

 

[Dario D.]

Hmm, I understand. So, the app would have to be made with the capacity to auto-update? I imagine it would also have to be able to do it without wiping out all the settings, etc, like a fresh install would do.

I did find UpdateStar, which is good program in theory (simply tells you which of your programs have newer version out), except that it only recognizes like 5% of all my programs, and doesn't know anything about updates for all the others.