UCheck - Update your software in 2 clicks

@Tigzy @greywun

Ok it's seems we have two use-cases here.

SumatraPDF installer has the option to Install "Only me" and for "All users", however behaves differently if the user is an Admin or a Standard user.
On ADMIN user the install location is \Program Files\ for both "Only me" and for "All users" which was unexpected. (Only me should have been saved in \Users\UserID\).
On Standard user the "Only me" install location is \Users\UserID\ and the "All users" \Program Files\" which is expected.

UCheck 5.0.4.0 portable x64, SumatraPDF Standard user & All users installed*.
Valid scenario, In this case only the Outdated version should be updated on the "Only me" location. (Both can exist next to each other).


UCheck 5.0.4.0 portable x64, SumatraPDF Admin user Only me and All Users installed*.
Invalid scenario, In this case the HKCU registry entry for "Display version" is outdated and the install state is considered "dirty" on my end.
The (main)fault in this case is on SumatraPDF's installer storing the Only me binaries in \Program Files\ and/or the user applying inconsistent install behavior.


*
Reproduction steps. once as Standard user, once as Admin.
Install SumatraPDF 3.5.1 as "Only me" first.
Install SumatraPDF 3.5.2 as "All users" second.
Run scan's for results.

 

Hi @roger_m

Further to your latest post # 4919 in Kyle_Katarn's SUMo : Keep your software up to date where you said that "UCheck finds 38 updates, whereas SUMo only finds 27" :

Do you mean total number of programs detected on the Installed tab of UCheck, or actual updates required for outdated programs?

My system might be slightly different from yours different because I use portable apps for many programs that most other users would install on their hard drive (e.g., CCleaner, HWiNFO, Revo Uninstaller, TreeSize Free, etc.). These portable apps are distributed as a single .exe or .zip file that I can run from any location (I run my portable apps from a removable USB stick), and if I want to remove them from my system them all I need to do is delete the file(s) from my USB stick.

When I run UCheck v5.0.4.0 on my Win 10 laptop the Installed tab currently lists 46 programs. There are 45 installed programs where the path to the built-in uninstaller is saved in the registry (i.e., the same list shown at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features). That includes 5 Compatible (dark blue highlight) programs where the latest version number is determined by automated bots that crawl the software developer's website to look for documentation about the latest available version, 23 Community *** (grey) programs where the latest version number is based on telemetry data collected from the wider UCheck community (the same method used by SUMo), and 17 Unsupported (no highlight) programs that can be uninstalled from UCheck but are not monitored to see if they are up-to-date.

*** Note that many of the Community programs monitored by UCheck are not full software programs but secondary "companion" modules with their own .exe file and uninstaller (e.g., the Mozilla Maintenance Service for my Firefox v118 browser, the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime for my MS Edge v118 browser, Apple Software Update for my iTunes for Windows v12.13.0, Fusion Service for My Dell v2.2.6 etc.). These modules are listed at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features but are not monitored for available updates by SUMo.

At present UCheck also detects 1 Portable (purple) app on my removable USB stick, AdwCleaner, that is not installed on my hard driver and has no entries in the registry. The list of Portable apps detected by UCheck will be expanded in the near future, but SUMo is currently able to detect 27 of my portable apps I run from a removable USB stick.

SUMMARY:

If I exclude the 17 Unsupported programs that UCheck does not monitor for available updates then UCheck is currently checking for available updates for 29 total programs (6 outdated, including 5 false positives) - 28 installed (including secondary modules like Mozilla Maintenance Service for my Firefox browser, Apple Software Update for my iTunes for Windows, etc.) and 1 portable app. SUMo is currently checking for available updates for 44 total programs (2 outdated, including 1 false positive) on my system - 17 installed and 27 portable.




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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3570 * Firefox v119.0.0 * Microsoft Edge v118.0.2088.69 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.5.293-1.0.2181 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7690 * SUMo Free Portable v5.17.10.542 * UCheck Free Portable 64-bit BETA v5.0.4.0

 

The number of updates found.

 

Hi @roger_m :

Depending on your definition of "updates" that might not be a fair comparison. When you say that "UCheck finds 38 updates", do you mean the total number of programs detected on the Installed tab of UCheck, and if so does this include the Unsupported programs listed on the Installed tab of UCheck (i.e., that have no highlighted colour) that can be uninstalled from UCheck but are not monitored for available updates?.

If I exclude the 17 Unsupported programs that UCheck does not monitor then UCheck is currently checking for available updates for only 29 total programs (6 outdated, including 5 false positives) on my computer - 28 installed (including "extra" modules like Mozilla Maintenance Service for my Firefox browser, Apple Software Update for my iTunes for Windows, Fusion Service for My Dell v2.2.6, etc. that SUMo doesn't monitor) and 1 portable app. SUMo is currently checking for available updates for 44 total programs (2 outdated, including 1 false positive) on my system - 17 installed and 27 portable.

I've posted further details in my post # 700 in Tigzy's UCheck - Update your software in 2 clicks.





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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3570 * Firefox v119.0.0 * Microsoft Edge v118.0.2088.69 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.5.293-1.0.2181 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7690 * SUMo Free Portable v5.17.10.542 * UCheck Free Portable 64-bit BETA v5.0.4.0

 

Hi roger_m:

If you have 38 unpatched software programs (per your post # 4919 in Kyle_Katarn's topic SUMo : Keep your software up to date) then that doesn't sound like a typical home computer unless you've deliberately stopped updating your software while you are testing UCheck. What is the total number of programs listed on the Installed tab of UCheck after you run a scan?

I only have about 72 programs ***, including 45 installed programs listed at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features plus 27 portable apps on a removable USB stick, that I use on my home computer. UCheck currently lists only 46 total programs (6 OUTDATED, including 5 false positives) on the Installed tab for my system, but that's probably because of the relatively high number of portable apps I run from a removable USB stick.

*** This doesn't include the third-party UWP (Universal Windows Platform / Microsoft Store) apps like My Dell v2.2.6 that are only listed at Settings | Apps | Apps and Features and are not scanned by either UCheck or SUMo.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3570 * Firefox v119.0.0 * Microsoft Edge v118.0.2088.69 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.5.293-1.0.2181 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7690 * SUMo Free Portable v5.17.10.542 * UCheck Free Portable 64-bit BETA v5.0.4.0

 

Does anybody on the forum have a big list of portable files that s/he could share ? I can provide (PM) a Dropbox link for upload

 

Unfortunately, no better.

Moreover, you can't do anything with any of them. It will not download, it will not open the site. Many are fake, others are beta. In other words, it does nothing.

Not even good for decoration, because it's not pretty.

It's all a rip-off.

 

Hi Tigzy:

When you say "big list" do you want us to upload the latest versions of the actual .exe and .zip files we have downloaded for our portable apps along with the URL for the download pages? If so send me a PM with your Dropbox link and I should be able to provide those files.

All my portable apps are located on my removable USB stick in E:\Portable. If you only need a list of the ~ 30 portable app I use then I provided Curson with output of the entire tree structure of all my portable apps by running the command tree E:\Portable /F > "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\Portable_Path.txt" from an elevated command prompt - see the .txt files attached to my 06-Oct-2023 post # 7 in my thread UCheck v4.10.2 - Problem Scanning Portable Apps in the UCheck forum. If that's all you need I can generate a new .txt file and attach it here.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3570 * Firefox v119.0.0 * Microsoft Edge v118.0.2088.69 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.5.293-1.0.2181 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7690 * SUMo Free Portable v5.17.10.542 * UCheck Free Portable 64-bit BETA v5.0.4.0

 

I would also like to know what a "big list of portable files" should look like.

 

Hi feerf56:

I think that's a bit harsh. Tigzy is still in the process of adding detection of Community and Portable apps to UCheck and has made significant progress in the past few weeks. A few bugs and glitches are expected under these circumstances and I'm happy to keep providing feedback as long as Tigzy is willing to respond to the concerns of beta testers and fix any reported problems.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3570 * Firefox v119.0.0 * Microsoft Edge v118.0.2088.69 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23090.2008-1.1.23090.2007 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.5.293-1.0.2181 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7690 * SUMo Free Portable v5.17.10.542 * UCheck Free Portable 64-bit BETA v5.0.4.0

 

It does not matter if they are up-to-date or not, really; I just need a big folder of portable apps to begin implementation. Downloading them one by one would be pretty long....
EDIT: thanks, I'll send you a PM

 

@Tigzy : Powershell still not detected => missing updates
Still getting the 1 mins lock on "last step" of the check with 5.0.3

 

@Tigzy

Hi,
in my opinion you should remove from the list the various Mozilla Maintenance Service,Microsoft Edge Update,Microsoft Edge WebWiew2 Runtime..................................... that probably nobody cares about.

 

Is it blocking on "Creating report..." ?

 

Hi,

Unfortunately, it is not rough. Here is a picture of some of the hits (all 16). I can't do anything with them. I can't do anything with skip or exclude. The "open website" is the same. I click on it and nothing happens. I cannot even get the name of the program to google it. The other thing I wrote. Alpha and beta versions are all or fake, non-existent. What I have marked with a red arrow is true for all the hits. I can't even select just the first one. There it shows as if it is doing something, but on the next check it gives the same output and my program doesn't change, doesn't update.

 

Stays a while on

Then on

for a loooooong time

 

I'd suggest to at least take these two packages which have a lot of tools in them to test with.

https://launcher.nirsoft.net/downloads/index.html
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysinternals-suite

(Beware that Nirsoft tools might trigger AV alerts as there are password recovery tools in there).

 

Autoruns
Default Program Editor
In Control
Long Path Tool
Path Length Checker
Process Explorer
Process Monitor
WinSetView
Rufus

 

In addition to the packages mentioned by @RonnyT above, here are two lists to be taken into consideration:

• https://www.softwareok.com/?Download
• https://www.portablefreeware.com/?p=1

And here are some more portable apps:

• Brightness.Manager.OK: https://www.softwareok.com/?page=Windows/Tools/Brightness.Manager.OK/1#S4
• Easy Context Menu: https://www.sordum.org/7615/easy-context-menu-v1-6/
• Everything: https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/
• Norton Power Eraser: https://support.norton.com/sp/en/en/home/current/solutions/kb20100824120155EN
• Notepad++: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/ (portable zip/7z)
• O&O AppBuster: https://www.oo-software.com/en/ooappbuster
• O&O DeskInfo: https://www.oo-software.com/en/oodeskinfo
• O&O RegEditor: https://www.oo-software.com/en/ooregeditor
• O&O ShutUp10++: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
• PopMan: https://www.ch-software.de/popman/download/PopMan.zip (portable)
• SpeedyFox: https://crystalidea.com/speedyfox
• VLC Player (7zip/zip package): https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.de.html
• Winaero Tweaker: https://winaero.com/winaero-tweaker/#download (zip package, run as portable app)
• WinMerge: https://winmerge.org/downloads/?lang=en (zip packages, run as portable apps)

If you need the files of the apps mentioned above, please let me know.

 

That's the number of updates that are found, not the number of supported programs. UCheck shows 221 installed programs. When I filter out unsupported programs, this drops to 144. SUMo shows 112 products. I have been deliberately not updating software. I haven't updated some apps that I rarely use. Some apps I can't update. For example, if I update the giveaway version of AOMEI Backupper Pro I have installed, it will revert to the free version. I can't update Total Uninstall, as I would need to buy a new license before I can do that.

On my other computer which I rarely use, if I go to the installed tab in UCheck it shows 883 programs. If I filter out unsupported programs, this drops to 578. SUMo shows 782 products. These figures would have been much higher, but I uninstalled tens of apps a few years ago.

 

I give a lot of credit to Tigzy for developing this program and putting up with all of the "noise" in this thread. I am looking for an alternative to Sumo and ucheck is a serious contender However, if I get barraged with banners/requests to update everytime I open the program there is a 0% chance I will use Ucheck.

 

And why do I have to scan for programs everytime I open the program, why can't it remember what I have from the last time I opened it?

And what's with all the colored lines for programs, I have no idea what they mean, anyone looking for a simple updater would look at these and probably pass. Why does it have to be so complicated, just list all programs, who cares if they are portable, supported whatever, why make it so hard Simple is best.

 

Because you may have installed or uninstalled some apps since the last time you use it.

 

@Tigzy
Hi there,
I have a bit more than 20 portable and I have no problem in sharing them. If you need, send me the link.
Your're doing a geat job.

 

That's why I used to have an open "feature request" board (Mantis) to have people logging their request there and then I made my batching by priority / popularity to avoid speending too much time on "niche" requests