So, if you find yourself using popular applications like AVG Anti-Virus, Firefox, Ad-Aware, QuickTime/Real Alternative, DeepBurner, DVD Shrink, CCleaner, FileZilla or one of hundreds of other brilliantly-useful applications available for download on FileHippo.com, you can ensure they’re all up-to-date by using FileHippo’s automatic updater app.

Alternatively (or, in addition), if you find yourself using alot of niche applications that perhaps don’t get updated all that often, you can still ensure you’re running the latest version by using Ketarin. However, while FileHippo’s tool can ensure your applications are automatically updated, Ketarin goes about the whole process in a different way – by updating the setup packages instead of the installed application itself.

So, for instance, you can have an entire folder (think USB flash drive) with a bunch of different setup applications that are all updated whenever there’s a new release. This way, when you choose to (and/or are forced to) reformat your system, you don’t have to worry about downloading new installs once you’ve wiped your drive… you’ve already got them.

Ketarin might take a little bit more work to get up-and-running with the application titles you want but the possibilities are pretty much endless. For instance, user FranciscoR in the Ketarin forums has uploaded a template that enables you to keep any installation package from PortableFreeware.com up-to-date. All you have to do is input the title ID number from the site (i.e., the "507" in "http://portablefreeware.com/?id=507"). There are several other user-submitted templates for your favorite download sites in addition to tutorials on how to control other powerful aspects of the Ketarin software.

(As an aside, Ketarin is made possible by one of my favorite freeware and shareware burning applications: CDBurnerXP Pro.)

These two amazing and handy utilities are completely free and can save you some headaches while, at the same time, giving you some peace of mind.

Ketarin – Keep Your Setup Packages Up-to-Date…
FileHippo – Keep Your Installed Apps Up-to-Date…

Well, cnet at some point seems to have caught onto the fact that users find this particular option to be, more often than you’d think, absolutely invaluable. That’s why they decided to implement this particular type of functionality into their own downloads site: Download.com. For instance, Apple just released iTunes 8 today but, if you think it’s still too disgustingly bloated not as great as you might have hoped, you can go all the way back to iTunes v4.2 (for Windows, v1.1 for Mac OS) and install it, instead.

Now, I’m not entirely sure when download.com began offering this (I honestly can’t tell you the last time I visited their over-crowded, ad-ridden site) but, if you’re a frequent cnet user, you might rather enjoy this feature. If you’re like me, however, and tend to stay away from cnet-related sites at all costs, then just bookmark oldversion.com and be done with it.