SOFTWARE UPDATER
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What you need: Windows 10 or 11
On 31 October, one of our favourite free tools for updating software, SUMo Software Updater, will be discontinued following the closure of its parent company. WingetUI provides a reliable alternative, and though it works in a different way to SUMo, it’s significantly improved since it launched last year.
Rather than get updates from developers’ websites, WingetUI uses package managers to detect and download the latest versions of programs. These include the built-in Windows Package Manager (Winget for short), the rival services Chocolatey and Scoop, and – as of the latest version – the .NET package manager required to install updates for Microsoft’s .NET framework.
If that sounds rather technical, don’t worry – WingetUI is straightforward to use. On the Discover Packages tab, you can search its massive collection of more than 14,000 packages to download junk-free versions of free software. The Software Updates tab tells you which already installed tools have newer versions available, and lets you update them all in one go, while the Installed Packages tab lets you remove unwanted programs in a couple of clicks.
WingetUI 2.1 gives you the option to filter packages by source, so you can exclude specific package managers from your search results. It also lets you add custom sources, if you know the URL of an official software site. Click the three-dot button in the top-right corner of the main window and choose WingetUI Settings, then ‘Winget preferences’. Click ‘Add source’ next to ‘Manage Winget sources’ and enter the address of the site.
When you change the program’s theme from light to dark – or vice versa – through the ‘Ge
