Patch My PC Home Updater

takeahike

I don’t know why but the Glary Utilities software updater is giving me a bunch of grief so I searched and found a list of alternatives here and one I really like is Patch My PC Home Updater. It looks very good and is apparently completely free. It is a software update notifier and also has an uninstaller and a few other features.

I have no idea why Glary is having kanipshins but so be it. Anyone else having problems with it? It suddenly gives a blank to updates after working without any problems for years. Rescanning sometimes works but not always (really a hit-and-miss sort of deal).

takeahike

The Glary Utilities software updater has been working without any problem now for the past couple of days, so I suppose that it is safe to assume that they were just having a bad day when I made my OP. In any event, the Patch My PC Home Updater is still a welcome addition.

takeahike

Time will tell for sure but it looks like I have a big turnaround on recommending this app. It seemed to work well since my OP but then just yesterday it–of course as is often the case without asking–updated itself, and then all hell broke loose. It started giving me all these notifications with no way to turn that off either in the app or Windows Settings, and the next thing I knew I had lost about 15GB of space on my C: drive. Typical cleanups worked only partially, so I had just backed up in the morning and therefore restored that and immediately sought to uninstall it, but much to my surprise it doesn’t even have its own uninstaller, with the only option when trying with Bulk Crap Uninstaller or Revo is to reinstall (unacceptable IMO). The only way I was able to get rid of it was with the leftover cleanup that BCU and Revo (on two separate machines) do, and which worked to completely eliminate any of its vestiges and that seems so far to have solved the problem, especially the drive space loss that was very disturbing, to say the least. So IMO you should steer clear, even though it did work well and I otherwise liked it before this recent episode.

px_eliezer_

takeahike

MAYBE (??) it somehow turned on Windows Hibernation which could result in LOOKING like you’ve lost space on the C drive.

takeahike

px_eliezer_

If so, wouldn’t it have gone into the hibernation mode? No sign of that. Any idea how that would have a relation to the app? In any event, while you or anyone else here is more than welcome to try to get it to work without problems, I’m not willing to attempt to get it to work properly again. If I could get it to work as it did until now, I’d like to have that, but certainly the lack of a built-in uninstaller is another bad sign. I remember a long time ago reading in PC Magazine that the lack of an uninstaller in an app was an immediate disqualification for their prestigious Editor’s Choice Award.

px_eliezer_

takeahike If so, wouldn’t it have gone into the hibernation mode? No sign of that. Any idea how that would have a relation to the app?

It recently happened with me from PrivaZer, was very inconvenient for me as I have a small C drive—then found out that hibernation mode had been turned on.

So was just a thought.

So regarding “Patch My PC Home Updater” did these instructions not work?

To uninstall Patch My PC Home Updater:

>Open the Start Menu and type Add or Remove Programs, then press Enter.
In the search bar at the top of the window, type Home Updater.
Click on Home Updater in the list of installed programs and select Uninstall.
Follow the prompts to complete the uninstallation process.

https://patchmypc.com/faq/uninstalling-patch-my-pc-updater/

takeahike

px_eliezer_

Thanks! That procedure gives you the built-in Windows uninstaller that I never use anymore because it leaves many remnants of any program that both BCU and Revo go on after to additionally remove. Again, I’m not willing to try it again, but I think that doing that would have only yielded the same reinstall option that I got because whenever an uninstall is initiated with BCU or Revo it always first uses the app’s built in uninstaller before going on to the remnants removal, and I got no such thing. BTW, I have also stopped using PrivaZer because I suspect–again only suspect without any proof–that it may have caused some of my problems discussed in response to one of your posts here (not really the slow boot mentioned but some other errors related to installing some apps in general that I was having before the over the top install cured them). BTW, thanks again for your responses!

takeahike

px_eliezer_

It doesn’t after all look like it was the fault of the app but of my upgrading to Windows 11 25H2 (same problem with 24H2)–so this is another woe of this upgrade in addition to those already stated. I can fix the problem and drive space is recovered by a combination of rebooting and using clean up utilities but I never had this or the other problems with 23H2, and there are other issues as well with the new versions, such as problems playing YouTube or other videos, also not there with 23H2, although they can also be fixed with a reboot. So I am rebooting and doing cleanups ad infinitum. Support for 23H2 ends next month, so I am screwed unless I want to run through the jungle–why Microsoft cannot offer longer support for 23H2 is not only disgusting but unnecessary and is just because of their general arrogance and laziness in my view, especially since they apparently cannot make the new versions just as good. I have not yet decided whether I will reinstall the Patch My PC app, again because of the other issues I noted, but that is the least of my worries at this point.

Somewhat-Reticent

takeahike What about support for 24H2?

takeahike

Support for 24H2 will end next October and support for 25H2 will end in October 2027–see here. I’ve run both 24H2 and 25H2 and the issues I’m having seem to be with both, which kind of makes sense since there it isn’t much of a leap from 24H2 to 25H2, with just a 30 second install of the enablement package vs. going from 23H2 to 24H2 being a much more substantial upgrade requiring a full install of the OS.

px_eliezer_

I’m going NC (No Contact) with Microsoft as much as I can without going to a Linux platform.

1) Blocked all Windows updates—a moot point because THEY (MS) cut them off from MY Windows 10 boxes.

2) As discussed elsewhere, 0Patch service which which has already been providing Windows operating system micropatches for some time. NOT to be confused with Oracle Opatch.

3) Settled on WebRoot Secure Anywhere for AV and additional malware prevention and hardening. It’s a solid company that doesn’t get as much attention as it should. Kind of like the security counterpart to Subaru. I’ve been very impressed with it, easy yet intense, small footprint.