I've been using PatchMyPC for a long time, and the best part is that it was truly "silent", hidden and functional, 100%.
However the newest version which is quite a bit different seems to "advertise" it's presence on the desktop (icon), making directories in the normal displayed OS tree, etc.
More importantly, today I got a pop up asking to allow or turn off notification settings for Patch My PC. However, it does not exist anywhere in the hierarchy of the OS and if you use Task Scheduler, you defeat the "automation" of it not running.
So, how can I regain the "invisible" installation not only of the program itself, but all the updating procedures that are scheduled (without having to delete the desktop icon, start menu references, folders generated in the OS c:\, etc.), as well as have it run silently at a specific time, 100% silently, not traces or interaction of any sort, anytime, just like it used to be?
Hey
@joeblow, thanks for the longtime support. Totally get wanting to keep things truly silent like the classic experience.
You're right, the MSI version does add a desktop shortcut on first install. But the good news is if you manually delete that icon after install, it won't come back in future updates. It's a one-time drop unless reinstalled fresh.
Also, we recently released a new portable version that's just a single binary, similar to the old v4 experience you mentioned. It doesn't install anything, doesn't create folders, and it stays out of the way. You can check it out here: https://patchmypc.com/product/home-updater/
On the notification popup you saw, I'm not sure what that might be. Patch My PC Home Updater shouldn't trigger any native Windows notifications, especially when running as a scheduled task silently. If you're able to grab a screenshot or note the exact message, we'd love to dig deeper.
Quote from: Justin Chalfant (Patch My PC) on July 03, 2025, 09:35:40 AMOn the notification popup you saw, I'm not sure what that might be. Patch My PC Home Updater shouldn't trigger any native Windows notifications, especially when running as a scheduled task silently. If you're able to grab a screenshot or note the exact message, we'd love to dig deeper.
Sorry to bump this thread, but I'm having the same issue and it's very very annoying.
I don't have any scheduled tasks. I just have installed Patch My PC at least 7 years ago (also installed on my new pc in 2022) and updated it regularly.
But since a short time (maybe last update) I also get a popup which says that there are X programs which can be updated. This is very disturbing as it also gets visible for example during some games and also when typing on a forum like this, suddenly the popup is there again, notifying that there are programs which need updating.
As I'm sure this is fine for some people, I personally don't like being disturbed by these update notices during my work or gameplay. I check regularly myself if there are application updates which can be done.
In the settings, really -every- setting is turned off, except the setting to automically close the application being updated to avoid files being in use.
I very much like Patch My PC, but I don't know why or since when this notification Windows was build in and I'm looking for a way to disable this.
I'm sorry.
I just found the place to disable this.
One would expect this to be under the settings tab, but it's under the "Schedular" tab.
"Schedule to Check and Notify for Outdated Applications" which is done every 2,5 hours and this must have been automatically enabled because I for sure did not.
I now disabled this check and hope the notifications are gone after that.
A notification system is not a bad thing, but it causes issues when displaying above anything which is running at the moment, even work, forums or games. So maybe as suggestion it can be programmed to not pop over everything?