portable apps

[Phoneios]

With due pleasure, I installed v5. I now wonder if PatchMyPC managing my portable apps folder also includes the subfolders therein.

edit: I now see that when I select 'portable' applications my subfolders are not visible. To keep a somewhat larger collection of portable apps organized it is really necessary to group them into categories. This seems like a very desirable feature, I'll also post in Feature Requests.

[around]

Same here.

[Phoneios]

If I remember correctly Sumo could also scan subfolders, can anyone confirm?

[around]

I believe KC Softwares, the creator of Sumo, ceased activity in October 2023.

[Phoneios]

I believe KC Softwares, the creator of Sumo, ceased activity in October 2023.

That is correct and it is the reason I used past tense. I just wanted it to be clear a software updater should be able to scan subfolders.

[Omar (Patch My PC)]

PMPC Home Updater isn't going to magically detect every portable app ever made and auto downloads the latest versions of them! What you are suggesting means that we need to add every single portable app on the internet to the database of the home updater.. and have a team that is ready to update these "thousands" of portable apps at any time.. which is of course, impossible.
Only the ones in PMPC Home Updater are supported for now, and you even must download them at least once from the home updater in order to get their updates in the future.

[Phoneios]

What you are suggesting means that we need to add every single portable app on the internet to the database of the home updater.

Er, I am not aware of that.
I am not at all referring to or saying anything about the comprehensiveness of the PMPC database of portable apps. I am not a native speaker, maybe my English is not adept enough.

I sipmply observed that PMPC did not see my portable apps in the designated folder. I assumed that was because I had stored them in a subfolder structure, to quickly find the right tool when I need it.


Example of nested folder and subfolders structure:
Portable Apps
     
   Hardware Monitors (with subfolders:)
      Speccy
      CrystalDiskInfo PORTABLE
      Winaero WEI tool
                Proprietary tools
                etc.etc.
        Data Management
                 Explorer
        Driver managers (also with subfolders)
   Uninstallers (also with subfolders)
   System (also with subfolders)
   Tools (also with subfolders)
        etc. etc.


On the lowest level I have every app in a designated folder with version information in the name, for the simple reason that many apps do not have version information in their name.

Now I did a quick test and put an outdated portable tool at the highest level, i.e. directly without an enclosing folder in the 'Portables Location' folder (rufus-4.4p.exe). I had PMPC run a re-scan. Rufus is now not found either.
So it must not be down to the inability to scan in sub-folders.

Ok, some more tests:
1 I go to default settings and let PMPC look at PortableApps folder on my desktop again. I place a portable app here. I do a scan. PMPC sees nothing.

2 I 'install' a portable app (I would use the term download here but understand the choice of 'install as well). I choose BlueScreenView 64-Bit_1.5.2. After a rescan, PMPC does see this app! But geek.zip what I put next to it does not! (This without putting geek.zip in a subfolder).

What is going wrong here?

[Phoneios]

Sorry, I did not manage to quote correctly:

Quote from: Omar (Patch My PC) on Today at 02:25:46 AM
[/quote]
'What you are suggesting means that we need to add every single portable app on the internet to the database of the home updater'.

Er, I am not aware of that.
I am not at all referring to or saying anything about the comprehensiveness of the PMPC database of portable apps. I am not a native speaker, maybe my English is not adept enough.

I sipmply observed that PMPC did not see my portable apps in the designated folder. I assumed that was because I had stored them in a subfolder structure, to quickly find the right tool when I need it.


Example of nested folder and subfolders structure:
Portable Apps
     
    Hardware Monitors (with subfolders:)
        Speccy
        CrystalDiskInfo PORTABLE
        Winaero WEI tool
                Proprietary tools
                etc.etc.
        Data Management
                Explorer
        Driver managers (also with subfolders)
    Uninstallers (also with subfolders)
    System (also with subfolders)
    Tools (also with subfolders)
        etc. etc.


On the lowest level I have every app in a designated folder with version information in the name, for the simple reason that many apps do not have version information in their name.

Now I did a quick test and put an outdated portable tool at the highest level, i.e. directly without an enclosing folder in the 'Portables Location' folder (rufus-4.4p.exe). I had PMPC run a re-scan. Rufus is now not found either.
So it must not be down to the inability to scan in sub-folders.

Ok, some more tests:
1 I go to default settings and let PMPC look at PortableApps folder on my desktop again. I place a portable app here. I do a scan. PMPC sees nothing.

2 I 'install' a portable app (I would use the term download here but understand the choice of 'install as well). I choose BlueScreenView 64-Bit_1.5.2. After a rescan, PMPC does see this app! But geek.zip what I put next to it does not! (This without putting geek.zip in a subfolder).

What is going wrong here?

[Pedro Lino]

Only the ones in PMPC Home Updater are supported for now, and you even must download them at least once from the home updater in order to get their updates in the future.

Would it be possible for PMPC to scan the folder (and subfolders?) where the user indicates to have the Portable apps and check for the existence of the Apps already in the PMPC list?

I have the same issue with a folder where Anydesk and rufus portable are located

[Pedro Lino]

Portable apps let you take essential software anywhere, running directly from a USB or external drive without installation.

This post is SPAM. Please delete this from this topic.

[Alex (Patch My PC)]

I sipmply observed that PMPC did not see my portable apps in the designated folder. I assumed that was because I had stored them in a subfolder structure, to quickly find the right tool when I need it.

PMPC will never see the portable apps you downloaded. It is not meant to do that. It won't scan your existing files, no matter what the folder structure is.

As mentioned, you first have to download within PMPC the portable apps that interest you, in the path that you can designate within the PMPC UI (bottom-right). It will then remember those apps, and offer the updated versions when they are released.

[lmacri]

I now see that when I select 'portable' applications my subfolders are not visible. To keep a somewhat larger collection of portable apps organized it is really necessary to group them into categories. This seems like a very desirable feature, I'll also post in Feature Requests.

Hi Phoneios:

When I tested Patch My PC v4.5.0 in late 2023 I also found the way it handled portable apps was very confusing and user-unfriendly.  See my 09-Sep-2023 product suggestion at Request for Additional Software and Detection of Portable Apps vs SUMo (which did not receive a response from a Patch My PC employee) and my general comments about detection of portable app updates in Patch My PC in Todd's 26-Oct-2023 Need SUMo Features.

I haven't tested Patch My PC v5.0.0 yet but early feedback suggests that there hasn't been a fundamental change in the way that portable apps are managed in this new version.  I keep my ~ 35 portable apps organized in separate folders on a USB stick at E:\Portable (e.g., E:\Portable\BleachBit, E:\Portable\HWiNFO, etc.) and when I use other software updater apps like UCheck or QuickInstaller (Preview) all I need to do is enter the top-level path to my Portable apps (E:\Portable) in the settings and both are able to check for available updates for many of my portable apps.

Nothing I've tested so far is an ideal replacement for SUMo and I only use software updater apps to check for available updates (i.e, I've never allowed SUMo or any other software updater to actually download and install updates) but there are other options available if the new Patch My PC v5.0.0 still doesn't meet your needs.  I prefer UCheck since it's available as a portable app and detects almost every other portable app I use.  Like the new Patch My PC v5.0.0, QuickInstaller (Preview) must be installed and will ask to install Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime v8.0.x on your system if it isn't already installed.
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Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.5011 * Firefox v132.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.24090.11-1.1.24090.11 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.2.1.144-1.0.5088 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * Patch My PC Portable v4.5.0.4 * 64-bit UCheck Free Portable v5.7.1.0 * QuickInstaller (Preview) v0.3.8859.20616

[hellengenie]

With due pleasure, I installed v5. I now wonder if PatchMyPC managing my portable apps folder also includes the subfolders therein.

edit: I now see that when I select 'portable' applications my subfolders are not visible. To keep a somewhat larger collection of portable apps organized it is really necessary to group them into categories. This seems like a very desirable feature, I'll also post in Feature Requests.

I had seen that before.

[dking02]

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.

[dking02]

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.