Appupdater provides advanced functionality to Windows, similar to apt-get or yum on Linux. It automates the process of installing and maintaining up to date versions of programs. It is fully customizable for use in a corporate environment.
I have been playing with this program this week. It looks promising for those of us who use open source programs On Windows PCs and like to stay up to date. I think I have found a few problems. The GUI version looks a little raw so I opted to use the command line version(0.8.1).
- I have Autoit, Notepad++, Synctoy, and Winmerge on my PC. Appupdater says it supports these applications but it did not find them during the update process.
- My first “upgrade” recommended upgrading QuickTime, Flash Player, and Powerpoint Viewer. I let it install all three updates. The QuickTime installation installed some shortcuts but it did not install the program. When I clicked on the shortcuts it told me QuickTime was not installed. I ran the QuickTime update from the cache and it is working now.
- The Flash player update installed the player but not the ActiveX component. I found this out when I went to the Adobe site to confirm the installation. I ran the ActiveX update from cache.
- I get a downloading versions.xml warning during the update process. I guess this is normal since this is a warning and everything else works.
- When I perform the list process, I get duplicate program entries for Java, Windows Media Player, and Windows Messenger. I guess I am a little surprised that Windows Media Player and Windows Messenger are on the list since I think they are supported by Windows Update.