|  by
Don Engstrom
4-4-01
Back in 1999, we reviewed
Insider Software's UpdateAgent CD Edition. UpdateAgent
is a nifty little program that scans your drive for
outdated software and presents you with a list of downloads.
In the past two years, UpdateAgent has seen a couple
of revisions and currently stands at version 8. This
time around, we put the "Online edition" through
its paces. How does it compare? Read on...
Options abound: While the basic program remains
the same, there are three distinct licences available.
The "Limited Edition" at $9.95, lets you run
the program just once, bringing all of your software
up to date. The "Online Edition" priced at
$49.95 allows you to run the software as often as you
like for a year. Lastly, the "CD Edition"
at $89.95 comes with 2 CD's chock full of updaters.
When we initially reviewed the CD Edition in '99, the
discs were issued quarterly. This meant that by the
time the CD's made it to the user, the files they contained
could be quite outdated. Insider software has addressed
this by burning your CD's at the time of purchase, thus
insuring that you have the latest updater files.
Installation/Setup: There is nothing to the
installation. Simply download
the demo and order the licence you want, "limited"
(one time) or "online" (full year). The CD
Edition cannot be downloaded of course! If you order
the CD or Online Edition, you can set UpdateAgent up
to check for updates on a regular schedule.
What it does/how it works: When you click the
"start" button, UpdateAgent downloads a data
file from Insider containing version information for
thousands of shareware and commercial programs. UpdateAgent
then scans your drive and compares your software versions
to those in the data file. This sounds like a lengthy
process, but I was impressed by how quickly I was presented
with a list of update candidates. Your mileage will
vary depending on the size of your drive and the number
of programs installed.
UpdateAgent color codes the list to help you identify
the update type. Updates from Apple are red, others
are black and commercial (fee based) upgrades are presented
in blue. Upgrades are not available for download of
course, but you are given the option of downloading
readme files outlining the features added. One minor
annoyance is the fact that UpdateAgent also lists interim
updates, not just the most recent. Assuming that you
run UA on a regular basis, this should be an infrequent
issue.
Would anyone really want to download both...?
Click on an updater, and, if the information is available,
UpdateAgent will list bug fixes and new features specific
to that file. There are also links to the developer's
web site and download page for further reading. You
can skip updates by unchecking them, and UpdateAgent
will move them to a "skipped" folder for later
consideration/retrieval. UpdateAgent remembers which
items you have skipped and does not present them to
you each time you run the program. To later download
a skipped file, simply open the "skipped items"
folder, select the item you want and hit the download
button. Insider's FTP servers seemed sprightly enough
with transfer rates hovering around 70kbps on our ADSL
connection.
Conclusions: Although you can track down updates
using sites like Version
Tracker, Insider Software's UpdateAgent 8 is a real
time saver. Whether you opt fo rthe $9.95 one time update
or the $49.95 one year subscription, UpdateAgent will
more than pay for itself in saved time.
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