ProgSense

ProgSense is a software update manager powered by Recipester.org. Basically, what the application does is scan your computer and find all the applications that you have installed on your system.

It then displays those applications in a list, along with their version numbers and the number of users from the Recipester community that have that specific version installed.

If you have any outdated application in your system, ProgSense takes you to a website with links to updates for those applications. The links are to the application's developers though, and not the update itself. So in terms of functionality, honestly, the application does work. However, there is the issue of originality.

Software Informer and the SI client have been around for a long time, and ProgSense is a relatively new project. If you open both applications side-by-side, you will no doubt notice that they are awfully similar. They both allow you to update your software and they both are powered by a social website. Graphically, the distribution of the elements of the GUI is identical. There are two tabs, one for the software installed and one for notifications. Even the error messages have the same text as the SI client.

On another note, you know how Software Informer has a team of software reviewers who actually take the time to write about applications so you know what you are downloading. Well, ProgSense used to put those reviews on their own site. They didn't even change the text and apparently, with no permission from Software Informer. Recently, they have stopped doing that; I don't think that of their own accord, though.

So, in a nutshell, the program does work to some extent, albeit with major flaws related to detecting versions and similarly named programs; but being a blatant rip-off as it is, it's still years behind the competition.