CheckUpdates is a powerful utility that surveys and detects new versions of the applications that you have set (or predefined), and alerts you when a new version is available on the Web.
CheckUpdates is constituted of an application, to set the preferences and edit the products under surveillance, and a daemon running in background showing an icon in the menu bar.

CheckUpdates Menu:

This menu is installed in the menu bar at the first launch of CheckUpdates. The icon indicates the surveillance status. The icon rotates when a Check is in progress. The icon flashes (or becomes red) when a new version is detected.
The search of new versions is launched periodically, but you can force it from the menu. You can also open CheckUpdates from this menu.

When the CheckUpdates applications is opened, the CheckUpdates menu is temporarily disabled and its icon is grayed. It will restart its surveillance as soon as you quit the CheckUpdates application.

CheckUpdates application:

You can launch the CheckUpdates application with a double-click, or form the icon menu. The application controls the surveillance.

The Main Window displays information and allows you to modify the settings, and edit the products under surveillance. For each of the applications you want to survey, you must create a product.

Survey a product:

You can add any number of products, and you can survey installed applications as well as products that are not on your machine.

To Survey an installed application, be sure that its name and the name of the product are identical. Thus, CheckUpdates will take in account the installed and detected versions during its checking.
To Survey any other product, create a new survey for this product. This is a good way, for example, to be alerted of a future version of a product that interests you but is not yet compatible with your System.

To Activate a product, click the checkbox located on the left of its name, in the list of products under surveillance.

The status of a product is displayed by an icon. A green bullet indicates that the product is up to date, when a red icon inform that a new version is available. The status is automatically modified as soon as a new version is detected.
You can manually change the status of a product at any time, with the buttons with the green and the red bullets.

This icons indicates that the version of the product was not found (no web access, web page unavailable, or version not found).

Applications Launcher:

Part of the CheckUpdates Menu, you open the Launcher via a combination of keys (by default Option-F8). Enter the first characters and you'll have the list of applications matching it.

CheckUpdates settings (Preferences):

You access Preferences via the CheckUpdates menu of the application.
- You can set the periodicity of the checking. A Check is always launched 5 minutes after the startup, and then every X hours.
- Automatically launched at startup starts CheckUpdates when the computer is started. You can deactivate this option if you want to use CheckUpdates only manually.
- Mode of indication of new versions, with a blinking icon, or a red icon in the menu bar.
- Choose the key combination to access the Application Launcher.
- You can choose what applications are displayed in the list of applications installed on your machine.
- If you purchased a licence, enter your serial number for a full access to CheckUpdates features.