It’s entirely possible these days to populate your PC completely with free software and pretty much cover all the bases for everything you want to do. While some free software might not get updated that often, some has a new release almost every other day it seems. Just like commercial titles, shareware or Windows itself, it’s a good idea to update freeware applications as well, even those programs which are usually hidden away and forgotten about like the Java runtime. New versions often bring security updates, bug fixes, enhancements and new features. Just because it’s free, it doesn’t mean development stands still.
Giving yourself the task of going online and checking to see if all your software is up to date, or opening each program and clicking the ‘check for new version’ option is not what you would call an efficient use of your time. Using a program to offer a list of free applications to download and install or update is not a new idea and there are a few you may know already such as Ninite or Filehippo.com’s Update Checker.
Another interesting tool along the same lines is Soft2Base which can offer a number of free software titles to download and install as well as checking and updating any of those that are currently installed but have a newer version available. The program uses a constantly updated online database to compare against.
Soft2Base has a few things going for it such as being completely portable and is also able to work in an offline mode. This means you can download all the programs needed from the list and place everything onto a USB stick, or even a CD for use on a machine that perhaps does not have an internet connection. There is also a choice of a standard install procedure or a silent one which suppresses user input while installing the application and skips the junk stuff like toolbars or home/search page changers. There are currently 61 titles available and these are checked for updates whenever the program starts. The online catalogue page tells you what applications are supported. As is the way with tools like this, there’s always something you want that isn’t included, but at least it’s a reasonable amount.
Simply download the standalone executable and run it to get started.
The window shows all the titles that are available for download. The blue icons represent applications that are not currently installed, the green are installed and also up to date applications. The purple icons with the down arrow are for something you have installed but an update is available for download, with the currently installed version and the new version numbers shown. Down the left side are ways to filter the list such as only showing anything which has an update, or only non installed programs. Clicking on one of the categories will narrow the list down if you have a certain type of program in mind. Tick everything required to be installed or updated and click ‘Next’.
The options in the next window will let you simply download the program without installing it, useful for using in the offline mode, and also whether to do an overwrite install that won’t check the currently installed version first. The ‘Silent Install’ option is whether you want to see the standard install dialog for the application or completely automate the process and do a default install without any user input being required. Obviously if you need to change the application install folder or alter certain other settings during the installation process, a non silent install will need to be chosen. The language option is to tell the application what language to install in.
The applications will then be downloaded if needed and installed as per the chosen instructions with a progress status on each line to give an idea where the process has got to.
There is a ‘Profiles’ menu option that can be set up to batch install applications from the list if you want to install them on more than one machine or update the same machine regularly. A couple like all Piriform or Google products are provided as examples.
As mentioned, Soft2Base can be used in offline mode meaning it doesn’t rely on the internet for the software if it is already downloaded. Please read ‘How do I prepare a USB drive ?‘ and ‘Download and Install options’ sections in the online help as the process is a little involved and needs to be followed accurately for it to work properly.
Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7 32bit and 64 bit.