Security notification firm Secunia released its software inspector tool - a product that aims to help surfers to keep up to date with security patches.

The Secunia PSI utility, which comes free of charge to consumers, but not corporates, scans Windows systems to provide a clear guide of applications that need patching or are out of date. Better still it provides links to download locations, detailed advisories from Secunia on the flaws and information of where utilities are installed. The product works on Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

The Secunia PSI is aFREE security tool designed to detectvulnerable andout-dated programs and plug-ins which expose your PC to attacks. Attacks exploiting vulnerable programs and plug-ins are rarely blocked by traditional anti-virus and are therefore increasingly "popular" among criminals.

The only solution to block these kind of attacks is to apply security updates, commonly referred to as patches. Patches are offered free-of-charge by most software vendors, however, finding all these patches is a tedious and time consuming task. Secunia PSI automates this and alerts you when your programs and plug-ins require updating to stay secure.

Exploits based on application vulnerabilities, as opposed to application systems flaws, are becoming increasingly commonplace.

Secunia PSI also provides notification about Windows flaws but it's on the application side of the house that it brings the greatest benefit. Without the tool it's hard to imagine how consumers can keep up to date with application patches. Remember: Patching is more important than just having an anti-virus program and a personal firewall.

You can download the latest .exe from their website here or a zip version from AfriConnect here (version 2.0) .