Once a month, on the second Tuesday known in the IT industry as Patch Tuesday, Microsoft releases its latest patches for the Windows operating system and the patch cycle starts all over for the millions of Windows users.

These patches are delivered to Windows machines through the built-in Windows Update feature. Many people probably have it set to auto mode where it will automatically download the patches and install them while others prefer to get the patches manually by visiting the windows update website. Regardless of how it’s done, it’s always a good idea to get the patches installed as soon as possible.

However, there is a problem - these patches released by Microsoft only fix known problems in files used by the operating system and some of the more important Microsoft applications such as Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and sometimes Microsoft Office … that’s about it. Think of all the other applications installed on your computer that you use on a daily basis - you might use a different browser, other media players, an application to read pdf files and the list goes on and on. Any of those applications with a known (or unknown) security issue could become the entry point for malware.

Software vendors will usually fix such security problems and issue new versions but who has time to keep track of all of them and make sure everything is patched properly? Secunia, a well known security company, has an application just for this exact purpose called Secunia PSI or Personal Software Inspector.

It is a free program for personal use that you can install on your computer where it will monitor the applications you have installed and alert you when the versions you have are not up-to-date anymore.

If you’d like to scan your computer without installing the application you can also use the web version of the tool.

Secunia Personal Software Inspector - desktop application
Secunia Software Inspector - online version

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Not too long ago the word spyware became part of our computing vocabulary to the point where almost everybody now knows that an anti-spyware application is probably one of the first applications you want to install on your brand new Windows PC.

Spyware refers to applications that are instaled stealthily on your computer for the purpose of intercepting your web traffic and taking control over your machine.

A new term is now on the rise - elephantware. This refers to legitimate but bloated applications that make your new PC operate as if it was already three years old.

Why is it that with all these fast CPUs we keep buying our computers are still sometimes as slow as those we used a few years ago? One of the answers is that companies creating software are just getting sloppy about their programming practices.

At any rate, read the article below, see if you have any of the mentioned applications installed and go for the alternates:

How to get rid of elephantware on your computer

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Did you ever need to obtain a particular statistic about the city or zip code you live in? You know the information is somewhere on the web but probably not that easy to find.

Well, I recently came across a site that is quite possibly the best one out there for this kind of research: City Data

It’s also a great resource to use for research if you’re in the process of moving to a new location or maybe if you need more information on a location for a real estate investment.

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