Managing the software on your PC can sometimes feel like a full-time job, as you have to find the best applications, download and install each one, then do your best to keep them up-to-date.
If you have better things to do with your time, though, you could just install Milouz Market, which can manage a lot of this almost entirely automatically.
The program must be installed itself, unfortunately (there’s no portable option). But that’s easy enough, and on its first launch Milouz Market will then scan your PC for all its supported applications. There are only just over 50, but the list does at least have plenty of big names, including 7-Zip, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, avast! free antivirus, AVG Free, CCleaner, Dropbox, FFDShow, Freemake Video Converter, GIMP, Google Chrome, Java, K-Lite Codec Pack, LibreOffice, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Opera, Picasa, Recuva, Skype, UltraVNC, VirtualBox, VLC Media Player and µTorrent.
When the scan is complete you’ll see a grid-based report, with any programs requiring an update at the very top. Simply click the Update button for as many apps as you like (or use the Update All button to select everything), and Milouz Market will download and install everything for you.
Your system is fully up-to-date? You can also use the program to find and install interesting applications. Suppose you need a photo editor, for example – you might scroll down the report, see PhotoFiltre, and wonder if it could be useful. Clicking the Help icon will display a little more information, and if it looks good, clicking Update will download and install it automatically, without you doing anything else (no browser windows to open, no files to download, no setup program to navigate -- nothing).
And if you decide later that you don’t need one of the supported applications after all, then Milouz Market can still help. Just click the Delete icon to its right and the program will be uninstalled for you.
The obvious issue here at the moment is the relative lack of supported applications. There’s enough to be useful, though, and if this is a big problem for you then the author is openly inviting suggestions for new programs which he can add to the list (send an email to market@milouz.com).
There are also some smaller issues here and there. Hitting the Delete button will remove an application without asking for confirmation, for instance, which seems a little risky. And although this is nominally an English language version, it still includes fragments of French here and there (a “Fermer” button on the Help dialog, for example): no big deal, but it looks a little sloppy.
Still, Milouz Market, is small, extremely easy to use, and the author seems to have big plans for the future (you’ll be able to maintain a list of your software on a central server, for instance). We’ll be intrigued to see where the program goes next.
Photo Credit: xc/Shutterstock