There are undoubtedly utilities on your computer that are essential to your workflow. It is common for minor updates of these utilities to be released every month or two. But how often do you check to see if you have the most current version? I spent about 10 minutes checking five of my favorites and I’ve listed the version I had and the current version that I now have installed. Are there any major new features? No. But there may be a minor fix that allows the utility to function better.

For each of the utilities listed, I’ve also provided a link to a previous blog post where I talked about why the utility is so important. Note that two of the utilities are completely free and the other updates were also free to registered users.

• Irfanview – 4.32 to 4.36
• Roboform – 7.9.0.0 to7.9.0.0 – I was surprised it was already up-to-date
• GoodSync – 9.5.1.1 to  9.5.4.4
• MysticThumbs – 3.0.8 to 3.1.0
• Evernote – 4.6.3.8096 to 4.6.7.8409

Do you schedule a few minutes every month or two to make sure your essential utilities are updated? Seriously, it only takes a few minutes to check and update them. Maybe you can set up a schedule to check a couple each month. Over a 3-4 month period, all of them will be checked.