Messages

The spacing between each application is tripple, quadruple line spaced.  Most of the application's window is empty, wasted whitespace.
This spacing makes it much harder to scan down a list of things.  Especially when you realise that when we're reading, we're actually recognising the 'shape' of the word, not reading each letter.  And in a compact list, this is much easier to spot.
This same 'feature' was also introduced to Windows File Explorer, and the massive kick back forced them to, correctly, give us a Compact View.

This would necessitate reducing the icon size, but we're not scanning down looking at the icons, we're trying to read the application's name.  The old version number, new version number looks ok stacked, in a smaller font size, so perhaps you could compact the lines such that they're tight up against these version numbers, with the thin separator line still in place.

This issue is obviously made 10,000x worse by the fact that you removed the categories back in 2022, which was a horrific, horrible move.

Please, at least give us the option to change the line spacing to compact.
Remember, FUNCTION FIRST, then make it look nice.

In 2022, you deleted the Categories.

That made finding, ticking all the individual pieces of software we need much, much more difficult.  And our user experience much worse, much more frustrating.

But, there was the promise of a new version in the works!  Perhaps categories would be reintroduces then???

NO.
No they weren't.

And to make the situation much worse, we now have a much expanded list of software to choose from (which should be seen as a wonderful thing, yeah???!).

Now we've got no chance of finding the 10-20 apps we need, without going cross-eyed, and spending half an hour trying.  Or, just giving up, and having to relaunch PMPC later to find the ones we'd missed.  Wasting our time.

It doesn't have to be this way.  It shouldn't be this way.
The Yellow Pages isn't just an alphabetical list of every business, is it? No.  That would be ridiculous.
PMPC not having categories is ridiculous.

And wrt the manager that made the decision to remove the categories back in 2022, please promote them to a position where they can't do any more harm.  They obviously have never done any IT Admin work, let alone use the this software in the real world.


Please do the correct thing and reintroduce them.
A good number of correctly names categories, so we can find what we need.

Please.

There simply isn't a reason to use PMPC if it's not saving the downloaded installers.
We might as well just use WinGet, or any of the other similar 'tick from a list & install' utilities.

Saving the installers was the defining feature of PMPC.

This makes me very frustrated.  Angry even.

I second this.

Especially as it now has its version 2 windows installer out properly now.

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease may we have this?

I just want to have a USB stick with PMPC and 100 applications on it, plug it in, start pmpc, select the items i want and have it find the local copies and install them (updating if required)


This can only happen if pmpc looks in the folder it's currently in for the software...  The path, drive letter, network address will change a lot!

Please just make it look in the current folder or one in a path relative to it!

Pretty please?

What an absolute mess this now is.

Before, I'd open it, browsers: check, check... multimedia: check, check... Utilities: Check, Check, Check... Etc...  Done.  Awesome.

I never really had to think...  Everything was logically sorted and it gives you an easy pattern to follow... Which is what you need if you're doing this stuff a lot... Which almost all of us PMPC users are...

Now:  Open it...  Errrr...  brain ache.  Dyslexia doesn't help...  Miss many items...  Have to open it later when i know there missing...  Swear A LOT!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

The ONLY issue with the categories, was that the utilities one was a little too big... It needed to be split up a bit.  That's all.

This is an absolutely amazingly useful bit of software!
But completely buggered by the removal of categories.

I hope that the person that suggested this change, and the manager who signed it off both have to wear a dunce's cap for one whole month.

I look forward to our beloved PMPC returning to its former glory.

 

Some apps have important new features in their betas.
Some apps are no longer being developed, but the last release happened to be a beta (e.g. Winamp 5.8 beta)
Some apps are developed really, really slowly (e.g. Teracopy)
Some apps just remain in perpetual beta... forever...

If we could at least have a per app 'Enable Betas' option... It could include a disclaimer, etc.
A 'Globally enable betas' option might be included for completeness, but the per app one is enough i'd guess.
And this would allow us to deal with any extraordinary circumstance that requires it, whatever the reason is.

At the moment, the cache path is stored as an absolute path... but if the usb stick that PMPC is on appears as a different drive letter, then it breaks the cache path setting that's remembered.

I want to have a disk, stick, folder with PatchMyPC.exe and all the previously downloaded software, all in one flat folder... The 'current folder'.

If the cache setting could optionally be relative, then i could tell it to be the current folder and others might choose to put it in a different folder name, in a different relative location of their choosing. So it gives us ultimate flexibility.

The PatchMyPCITProCache option/folder has a specific role, so that can't be used.

Could Winamp receive special treatment?
As there's a massive possibility that there might not be any future releases... so it might stay at 5.8 forever...

So could the No Betas rule be waived here.
Perhaps put an asterisked note against it, indicating that it is the beta build as it's 'exceptional/Special'.

5.666 simply can't finish scanning my music folders as the paths go a bit too long...  5.8 just works.
I can't remember what the other fixes were in this beta, but they are letting us continue using it on W10.

Please!