Chrome Browser Not Recognized As An Installed App

[tennisace57]

Patch My PC doesn't recognize Chrome as an installed app. When I click the App icon in left-navigation pane of the app interface, Chrome isn't listed in the listed of install apps in the right-most pane. However, I do get a prompt to update Chrome but it doesn't display in Green font under the Browser category in the middle-pane. And if I left-click on the Chrome entry in the middle-pane, the context menu doesn't include an uninstall option. See attached screenshot.

How do I get Patch My PC to recognize Chrome as an installed app?

[Omar (Patch My PC)]

Are you using portable edition of Chrome ?

[tennisace57]

No, I'm using the installed version. Moreover, on launching PMP today, I have a notification to update Chrome again even though my installed version is currently up-to-date. See attached screenshot.

[Omar (Patch My PC)]

Can you right-click on Chrome from the right panel and see if you disabled its "Scanning or Auto updating" by a mistake maybe ?

[tennisace57]

When I right-click the only options are to disable.  And again, noticeably the option to uninstall is not there. Also, you will note in the attached screenshot conflicting information:

• 1 App To Install
• 15 of 15 Apps Up To Date!

How can there be an app to install/update when all of the apps are up to date?

[Omar (Patch My PC)]

It says 1 app to install because you selected Chrome in that screenshot.
Maybe you installed the MSI installer for Chrome ?

[tennisace57]

I think it was checked by default. I don't recall installing the MSI Chrome installer. I think I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling PatchMyPC. I'll let you know how that goes.

[tennisace57]

I completely forgot the PatchMyPC is not an installed app, so uninstall/reinstall is not an option.

You may find this interesting though, if I un-check Chrome and close PatchMyPC and relaunch, Chrome is again checked by default.

[tennisace57]

UPDATE: As it turns out, the reason Patch My PC no longer recognizes Chrome as an installed app is because my Windows 7 Home (64bit) laptop no longer recognizes it, i.e., itÔÇÖs no longer listed under ÔÇ£Control Panel > Programs and FeaturesÔÇØ and consequently my 3rd party uninstallers also no longer recognize it ÔÇô IObit & Revo Pro.

IÔÇÖve tried a forced uninstall using both uninstallers and deleting all leftover registry keys & folders and manually deleting both Google > Chrome folders:

C:\Users\<YourUserName>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome
C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome

And on reinstall using ChromeStandaloneSetup64.exe Chrome reinstalls nicely and everything syncs via my account login (and it seems to run faster), but itÔÇÖs still excluded from list of apps under ÔÇ£Control Panel > Programs and Features.ÔÇØ

ItÔÇÖs worth noting that Patch My PC does recognize it on my Windows 10 Home (64bit) desktop as do my 3rd party utility apps and as expected itÔÇÖs also listed under ÔÇ£Control Panel > Programs and Features.ÔÇØ

CONCLUSION: This is a either something unique to my Windows 7 laptop or Chrome no longer plays nice with Windows 7 Home (64bit) OS, which is something Ive seen with other apps, e.g., Heimdal Agent (another app update patch installer). For many years I used Secunia PSI, until they released a completely new version of the app which performed miserably, which lead me to Patch My PC but I digress

Ultimately, I will be converting this laptop to Windows 10 sometime around November 2019 in advance of MicrosoftÔÇÖs termination of security updates. Hopefully, that will resolve the issue.