I thought I'd do something different than a game review and review a utility program instead.
Program Name: Patch My PC
Version Reviewed: 2.6.0.9
Website: https://patchmypc.net/Download Page: https://patchmypc.net/download
With all the small but commonly used programs that we don't even think about on our computers, the question of how to keep them updated is an important one, especially when some of them are common avenues for malware to end up on your computer. Sure, you may do a good job of keeping your browser up to date, and you follow the prompts that come up when something needs to be updated, but even if you do this you may have to find the download, uncheck options that install third-party software they've been paid to include in the install, and then wait and do this for each program that needs to be updated.
The idea of one program automatically checking and installing updates with minimal effort (commonly referred to as patch management), is one that has been around in the enterprise world for a long time now and is a very competitive and lucrative business. However, this is the first I've heard of a full patch management product for the consumer, much less one that's free. For several years now, I've used the FileHippo Update Checker/App Manager, which does a fine job of identifying outdated software, but still left it to me to download the updates and run them individually, which was still time-consuming and tedious. So when I read
this Lifehacker article about a program that would do all the work for me, I had to try it out. From what I can gather, the company behind this product makes its money from selling enterprise patch management solutions to companies, but has also put out this free client version for personal use.
The Patch My PC InterfaceUpon downloading the program, the first thing I noticed was that the download itself is an executable that can be ran and does not need to be installed on the computer. This is great for professionals that service PCs, because it means they can put this on a flash drive and run it any computer they plug the drive into. The download is around 400KB, making it portable even for the smallest of flash devices. When you run Patch My PC, it automatically checks your software and provides a color-coded list of programs to the right that are on your computer which it supports. Green means the software is up-to-date, red means it's not and it can update it for you. In my case, it found nine programs that needed updating, from Java to WinSCP (a FTP client) to Notepad++ (a great tool for programmers).
To the left is a list of all programs that it supports using the same color-code, but adding black for programs it supports that you do not have installed. If you happen to see a program in the list you want to install but don't have, you can select that program and it will include it in the 'update' list to install for you. As I test, I used Patch My PC to install Evernote along with my software updates, and it did so with no problem. Overall, Patch My PC supports around 100 programs at this time. You can also use it to install Windows Updates, but the benefit of this seems more dubious considering that Windows already has options to schedule and perform updates automatically.
At the bottom of the program screen are two buttons, one to rescan your computer for updates, and one to perform the updates (and also any new installs you checked). When you click the button to perform updates, it begins the process one at a time, downloading the program and installing it for you. It took about five minutes for the program to update all nine pieces of software and install Evernote. By default, it
does not install the third-party software that is included in installers that you have to uncheck if you don't want, but it does install an icon for each program on the desktop, so you will need to delete those if you like your desktop without icons.
Patch My PC has some other options included...the most beneficial is the ability to skip updates for certain programs. This comes in handy if you absolutely must use an outdated version of something...for example, if you have a Java program that hasn't been updated to work with the newest version yet. You can also set options to have it create a restore point before doing updates, disable silent updates (if you want to manually install them yourself), automatically exit programs that need to close for updates (like your web browser when installing Flash), and more. You can also set it as a scheduled task to run with various options if you don't want to be bothered with even starting the program and clicking the update button. Overall it seems to have options to perform your updates in any manner you wish.
It also has some other features that are standard and generic for PC utility programs, namely a list of programs that run when your computer starts which you can enable/disable, and a list of programs on your computer which you can select to uninstall. I suppose it doesn't hurt having these options if you're already in the program, but this functionality exists in just about every other PC utility program as well as Windows itself. Personally I think it's an unnecessary addition to the program, but it doesn't distract from what it does best...updating software.
Overall, I thought Patch My PC delivered on its promises to provide a quick and effortless method of updating programs. Obviously, it's impossible for one program to support updates for every piece of software ever, but it does particularly well at supporting those small but ubiquitous programs that you often hear are being patched for security reasons or are the targets of hackers and malware. Especially considering its small size and ability to run directly from the install, I would recommend it to anyone to at least try out.
