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As a follow-up to my preceding reply ---

For simplicity, I only mentioned a single location (folder) for downloading the package (.exe or .zip file) for a portable app. That's the way I have Home Updater V5 set up. I then just copy the downloaded .exe file or expand the downloaded .zip file to the desired folder or subfolder where I "install" the portable app.

If you are not satisfied with downloading portable packages to a common portables location, you can set the location where the package for a particular app will be downloaded by changing the portables location setting in the Home Updater console on the Apps tab when installing the app. I believe the PMPC server records the initial download location at the time of the install of each portable app so that subsequent updates or re-downloads of the app can be downloaded to the same location without the user having to check or change the current setting of the portables location. However, changing the download location for individual apps means more complex settings in PMPC Home Updater and dependencies on them.

From what I have deduced from occasionally using PMPC Home Updater V4 and V5, there is no scanning of the portable apps download folder, let alone subfolders thereof. What happens is that when you "install" a supported portable app from the PMPC library via the Apps tab, PMPC downloads the package (.exe or .zip) for the current version of the app to the portables download folder and establishes a subscription for future updates. (Note: Zip files are left in their original form in the folder and are not extracted.) When the PMPC server determines that there is an update to a subscribed portable app, it will notify subscribed users via the "Outdated" status of the app in My Apps. The portable package for the update will be downloaded automatically if you have that option set or you will be required to click on the "Start Updater" or "Outdated" status button to download the update package(s). You will continue to get updates until you "Uninstall" the portable app from the My Apps or the Uninstaller tab. The "Uninstall" terminates your subscription for the portable app with the PMPC server.

The Home Updater can be used to ensure notification and download of each update to a supported portable app. You can use or copy the downloaded packages to update your own setup of portable apps folders. You are not limited to using the apps in the downloads folder. PMPC server knows and uses the subscription and version of your latest download to determine which version you have installed, making it unnecessary to scan folders on your PC to determine your current version of the app and whether an update is applicable. You can actually delete or move a package from the downloads folder and PMPC will still show the portable app as installed as long as you have not "uninstalled" it via PMPC.

This approach is quite clever since it avoids scanning for portable executable files and all the inherent difficulties of that approach used by SUMo or UCheck. It is only possible because PMPC supports a defined set of portable apps (100 supported portables in V5) and thus is able to control the entire process. PMPC is totally unaware of any unsupported portable apps on your PC or supported portable apps not downloaded through PMPC, whereas it can still determine the installed version of unsupported, non-portable apps installed on the PC (as recorded in the registry, etc.) without requiring or supporting downloading the installer through PMPC.

[PMPC Home Updater 5.0.3]

When I initially launched PMPC Home Updater 5.0.3 on 7 Nov 2024, it correctly detected 47 supported non-portable apps installed on my PC. However, it also populated the My Apps view with 98 out of the 100 supported portable apps before I could install even a single one. All 98 portable apps were displayed with a bogus version number of 1.1.1.0, with 20 identified as up-to-date and 78 identified as outdated (see attached screenshot). None of these portable apps appeared on the Uninstaller tab, although having an entry in My Apps and no corresponding entry in the Uninstaller tab should never occur and should have been caught as an error by the program. No files were downloaded to the configured Portables folder. The debug log contained related errors. I tried re-scanning the PC, uninstalling the portable apps from the My Apps view, and uninstalling and reinstalling PMPC, all to no avail.

I subsequently noticed among the reported Version 5 bugs that another user had reported a similar problem back on 23-24 Oct 2024. He had managed to resolve his problem without a response to his report by uninstalling a bogus item that appeared at the top of Uninstaller tab. His problem report was eventually closed with no further action on 27 Oct.

    V5.0 lots of apps showing up as installed that are not and never have been
    https://patchmypc.com/forum/index.php?topic=8146.0

I noticed that my Uninstaller tab also contained a bogus item. It consisted of an icon for AdwCleaner, a bogus version number of 1.1.1.0, a Publisher value of "OKI Data Corporation" and no values for DisplayName, UninstallArgs, or InstallDate as reported in the exported .csv file. Selecting the Uninstall option for the item produced no change (since there was no data UninstallArgs data). I tried manually uninstalling an unrelated, preexisting portable setup of AdwCleaner on the machine but that had no effect. I then searched the Windows registry for the occurrence of the Publisher name ("OKI Data Corporation") that appeared in this bogus item, and which was the name of the manufacturer of a former printer installed on my PC, all of whose drivers and software had been uninstalled when disposing of the printer. I did find the following InstallShield uninstall key which referred to a previously uninstalled utility program (ActKey) used with OKI printers and which contained the matching "OKI Data Corporation" text.

    HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Installshield_(5985BA62-6CD88-4335- ...)

As the key did not include an identifiable uninstaller to run, I manually deleted the key from the registry and restarted PMPC Home Updater. This resulted in all of the erroneous entries for portable programs being removed from My Apps view and the bogus item being deleted from the Uninstaller tab, resolving the problem with 5.0.3 on my PC.

I also noted errors in the log file indicating that PMPC was looking for but could not find portable programs like AdwCleaner (and others) in the registry even though portable programs are not expected to have uninstall data in the registry; e.g.,

    [2024-11-09 15:55:28]  INFO  Application launch.
    [2024-11-09 15:55:28]  DEBUG  View MainViewModel has been loaded
    [2024-11-09 15:55:30]  DEBUG  View InstalledApplicationTabViewModel has been loaded
    [2024-11-09 15:55:45]  ERROR  System.Exception: Application AdwCleaner was not found in registry.
       at ModernHomeUpdater.ClientApp.ViewModels.InstalledApplicationTabViewModel.TryUninstallApp(InstalledApplicationViewModel model)
    [2024-11-09 15:56:00]  DEBUG  View ApplicationViewModel has been unloaded

Conclusion: There appears to be a problem for a small percentage of user installations with how PMPC Home Updater V5 is handling the uninstall entries in the registry when scanning the PC. I had none of these issues when running V4 on the same PC. This problem should be fixed or at least acknowledged and documented in the interim, providing troubleshooting information for affected users to recognize and possibly resolve the problem.

On the Apps tab of Home Updater v5.0.3, portable apps are listed with the word "Portable" in bold yellow appended to the name if necessary. This clearly distinguishes portable apps from non-portable apps. (Note: "Portable" is only explicitly part of the raw name of a supported portable app if there is supported non-portable version of app in the library.)

However, on the Uninstaller tab, portable apps are identified by their raw name only. Since most supported portable apps do not explicitly include "Portable" in their name, the distinction between portable and non-portable installations is more difficult to determine, particularly in the case where a user has installed the non-portable version of an app not in the library and a supported portable version of the same app. Even where the word "Portable" is included in portable app's name, it is not highlighted in yellow to better distinguish it.

This inconsistency in appearance of portable apps names between two highly related tabs raises the likelihood of confusion about what type of installation of the app is being uninstalled. Having to correct a situation where a wrong app installation has been deleted can be difficult, particularly if the error goes unnoticed initially. Each app in My Apps, whether it is a supported portable or supported non-portable app, appears in the Uninstaller tab. One would expect them to be listed in a similar manner in both tabs, particularly since a user can uninstall an app from either tab and because installing or uninstalling an app on the Apps tab or uninstalling an app on the Uninstaller tab has an effect on the other tab.

The recommended solution is to correct the display of portable apps in the Display Name column of the Uninstaller tab to match the Display Name column of the Apps tab. (Note: Since this issue can easily lead to errors and confusion, it needs to be fixed. Therefore, I consider this issue to be a bug, not an enhancement.)

On 13 Nov 2024, Home Updater V5.0.3 showed an update of Paint 5.1 (released and installed on 12 Nov 2024) to 5.1.0 (see attached screenshot). 5.1.0 is a bogus version id for Paint.NET. The update to 5.1.0 reinstalled version 5.1 but Home Updater got hung in an endless loop exiting the installer. Home Updater needed to be exited to get out of the loop and any pending updates reinitiated. v5.1 is what appears in the registry, in the Paint.Net Version History, within the app, and in what PMPC ultimately displays after installing the so-called update leaving the incorrect "Outdated" status displayed. Ideally, a difference in version numbers like 5.1 and 5.1.0 would be considered insignificant and not trigger an update.

Paint.NET Version History
https://www.getpaint.net/roadmap.html