Software that works is a very good thing, especially, if you are talking about updaters. It's very difficult to catalog the myriad of software around the globe, rarely apt-get, the Debian GNU/Linux package management can be beaten. All the software is heavily centralized and maintained.
In Windows i think it's very difficult to find an updater that works at 100%. The simple approach of SUMo found me positive.
The job is done in a very simple way, it takes a list of your installed programs, (you can also add your own program, if not found), their version, and simply tells you what is outdated through a nice interface. I was impressed about its simplicity: SUMo only redirects you to a custom web page showing the appropriate link on top of the page. You can also submit the link if you already know it in order to support future searches. There's also a "prefab" list of searches, pointing to the main software sites like FileForum, CNET's Download.com, just to mentioning few.
I use SUMo very often, and i can tell you that is very difficult that it miss the target. I like it very much cause it finds very soon the last version of the software, also beta software, it is precise and very "fault tolerant". Simply works.
The list of software updaters under Windows is growing day by day and they also do their job very well or better, but where the majority of them lacks i the mismatched version reckoning, and the ability to skip or ignore selected application from an updating search. I'd wish to skip to propose you the mandatory list of Software Updaters under the Windows Operating System, could be dispersive, boring and also not SEO friendly. SUMo is not perfect and it is also affected by some bugs and sometimes it stops working in the middle of an updating session, but i still continue to use it. Try SUMo.
SUMo
http://www.kcsoftwares.com/index.php?sumo
Related Links
gHacks technology news - Battle of the Software Updaters
MakeUseOf.com - 5 Quick Steps to Manage Software Updates with SUMo
Download Squad - 5 great program downloaders and updaters for Windows
