Today version 1.0 of Secunia Personal Software Inspector was released. You can download it free for personal use here. I have been using PSI since RC1 and I?ve blogged about it on my other website. If you are running Windows and have installed more applications then Microsoft Office you want PSI. PSI pickups up where Windows Update leaves off. Once you install PSI it will scan your system for applications including MS Office and Windows Patches. When it has a list of the applications installed it will tell you which, it any have updates are available. It even makes it easy to download and install them.
We all know that Windows has its security problems but the majority of Windows attacks are through 3rd party software not typically the host OS. So you can have a secured Windows install but your system can still be exploited if you?re running a vulnerable version of Yahoo! Messenger or other 3rd party application.
Now PSI doesn?t track every application but it covers most of them. Again with security it?s all about mitigating risk. If PSI helps you to update one application on your system, then you have just eliminated one more attack vector. PSI is free for personal use so please give it a shot I?m sure you will like it. I would suggest that you run it only when needed. The program can run as a services and monitor your applications real-time but that can be a waste of system resources. I usually run a scan of my system whenever I get a Windows Update alert or install new software which is about bi-weekly.
If you have a business and would like to install PSI on all your clients they have a solution called NSI 2.0 which is the same thing as PSI but in an agent form so that you can manage multiple machines from one host. This version does cost ?20.00 per computer.
If your using PSI or NSI I would like to get your feedback in the comments.
