Ninite – Easy Software Installation and Updates

A while back one of my students introduced me to a fantastic free software installation/update tool called Ninite. I thought I would share it with you today.

We all have a set number of basic applications we must have on every personal computer. These are applications we use regularly, and installing them every time we change machines is a tedious and time consuming task. We waste time downloading packages from each software vendor, install, reboot, rinse and repeat. I’m sure you’ve all spent countless hours going through the motions.

What if you could navigate to a single site choose the applications you want and viola, a single install package is automatically generated, downloaded and installed without user interaction. That’s exactly how Ninite operates, best of all it supports Windows, Linux and its free for home use.

If you support others or offer IT consulting you know, updating applications is a necessary evil particularly with Java, Adobe, Firefox, Chrome, iTunes, Silverlight, Quicktime and others. The problem is it’s a time consuming process, which explains why most put it on a back burner, not the best and most secure approach. With Ninite, you can considerably lessen the required time-burden to install or update software. The process is easy; from Ninite’s site, select applications and download a single installer package, copy to each machine and execute. Ninite takes care of the rest. According to their web site “Ninite is the easiest way to keep apps up-to-date.” and I would agree.

If you’ve been around the block a while you know updating Flash, .NET, Java, Adobe Air, Adobe Shockwave isn’t performed as often as it should be, which is interesting given number of vulnerabilities discovered in these applications. With Ninite there really is no excuse not to perform these updates regularly.

As a quasi-security tool, Ninite.com offers an easy and time saving process. They even offer a pro service and software called Ninite updater, which makes updates stupid easy. Essentially set and forget. If you haven’t tried it, I encourage you to give it a try next time you have to install or update a bunch of applications.

I’d love to hear about your experience with Ninite or other similar tools or services.

Cheers.