How To Update Apps On Windows 10

How to keep your apps up to date in Windows 10 and 11

With dozens of applications installed on the typical Windows PC, keeping them all updated seems like a Herculean task. Automated tools tin can lighten the load considerably.

Look around a typical Windows desktop. Whether it'south running Windows ten or 11, chances are that it'south running at least a couple of dozen Windows applications (.exe files), and at to the lowest degree iv dozen Microsoft Shop apps. On my local fleet of 10 PCs, the range for applications is from a low of 24 to a loftier of 120; for Store apps, it ranges from 49 to 81. Such numbers are quite typical, if my online research is at all accurate.

In general, it's considered practiced security practice to continue apps and applications upwards-to-engagement. Why? Because many updates involve security patches and fixes that block potential attacks and foreclose unauthorized and unwanted access to applications and their data (and sometimes, the host Bone and the PCs they run on). In this story, I will offer some tools to help you streamline this procedure, along with some instructions on how to put them to work to help you proceed your apps and applications current and safe.

Counting what yous've got

First, it's helpful to understand just how many apps you take installed. For Windows 10 and 11, there are ii ways to become a handle on a PC's application count, including both .exe applications and Store apps. The start method is to press Windows fundamental + R to launch the Windows Run box, and so blazon ms-settings:appsfeatures into the box. This opens the Settings app'due south "Apps & features" pane, which provides a count of all executables on the target PC.

Figure i shows the output from my production desktop which is heavily populated with apps and applications (201 in all, in fact):

keep win apps updated 01 apps features — Figure i: The listing of installed apps in "Apps & features" begins with a full count at the meridian of the listing.

The 2d method uses File Explorer to count subfolders in the Windows Apps hierarchy, which includes born Windows tools and utilities, plus items from the Program Files and Programme Files (x86) folders. Inside the Run box, type shell:AppsFolder. This produces a File Explorer window with a total count field at the lower left corner, as shown in Effigy 2.

keep win apps updated 02 apps folder — Effigy ii: Note the item count at lower left (329) is considerably higher than the Figure 1 count. (Click image to enlarge it.)

When you stop to consider that somebody has to keep all these applications upwardly to date, somehow, these numbers can seem daunting.

Practice you actually need to manage all this stuff on your own?

Fortunately, the answer to this question is a solid "No." In this story, I describe and explicate multiple sources of automated relief that should lighten this load considerably. "By how much?" is the inevitable follow-up question. In my own experience, using the tools described here means that I seldom have to update more than a scattering of applications manually at any given time. Once you learn how to practise this, it's really quite routine.

Two major, Microsoft-supplied facilities will handle much of the work involved in keeping applications up to date on your behalf. Windows Update (WU) automatically handles Windows updates, which covers the tools and utilities included forth with the Windows OS. But WU can also keep an eye on device drivers and Microsoft applications (such every bit Word, Excel, Teams, and then forth) and proceed those up to date every bit well. See "How to handle Windows 10 and 11 updates" for details on using Windows Update.

Then there's the Microsoft Shop. It, too, keeps an centre on all the apps nether its purview. It will update them daily by default. And yous can visit the Library and click the Go updates push any time y'all like, to forcefulness awaiting updates to exist practical to your PC. This button is shown on the upper right in Figure 3.

keep win apps updated 03 ms store library — Figure iii: Microsoft Shop updates apps daily as a background job, merely if you click *Go updates*, yous can update whatever fourth dimension you lot like. (Click image to overstate it.)

Setting aside the items handled by Windows Update and the Microsoft Shop updater, then, the actual number of applications that I must rails and update on my Windows 10 and 11 PCs usually varies between two dozen and just over threescore, depending on the individual PC.

Next, I'll explain what'southward involved in keeping an application upwards to date before I innovate a pair of powerful shortcuts to expedite that process.

A full general application update approach

In principle, it's dead simple to determine if a Windows awarding needs an update. Information technology requires checking the installed awarding version number on your PC against the current or almost recent version number for that application bachelor from its maker. If the number on your PC matches the one from the maker, it'due south current and needs no update. If it's not a match, you'll need to download the electric current version and update or install information technology on your PC to make information technology current.

Note: In some cases, you lot may be running a version number on your PC that's college than the one labeled equally current, latest, or almost recent past its maker. This tin can happen when you lot decide to install a preview or beta version of software on a PC. In that case, you must bank check the release number for the maker's beta or preview releases instead of the general production releases.

Simple it may be, only manually checking version numbers for a few dozen apps — and and so downloading and installing those that need updating — is a fool's game. At that place's a amend way.

A potent tandem of free update cheque tools

The two programs I innovate below automate the process of checking application version numbers and installing any necessary updates. If you search the cyberspace for "Windows software updater" or "Windows patching software," you tin find dozens of such tools available. Some of them are free, others come in both free and for-a-fee versions, and nonetheless more are bachelor just to those willing to pay to apply them. For more than information on what's available in full general in this vein, check out Lifehacker'southward "Five All-time Software Update Tools" or Innovana's "fourteen All-time Free Software Updater Programs."

There are lots of options to choose from, and then if you decide you don't similar what I'yard about to lead you through after some hands-on feel, exercise please check these lists (and perchance others) to see if you can notice similar tools more to your liking. The basic concept is to find ane or more update tools that will take the bulk of the awarding update load off your shoulders and practice that work for you.

Option one: Patch My PC Updater

Patch My PC Updater is a freeware tool for individual users that comes from enterprise patch-management software vendor Patch My PC. It recognizes and automatically handles updates for around 300 unlike Windows applications. Information technology does so automatically, quickly, and with minimal muss and fuss. I've used this tool for nearly half dozen years now and it does the task both nicely and well.

Figure iv shows the domicile screen, which tells me that I need to update my re-create of TreeSize Costless to the current version. Otherwise, 27 out of 28 apps that Patch My PC tracks are upwards to date.

keep win apps updated 04 patchmypc — Figure 4: Items in carmine, such as TreeSize Free at top of list, need updates. (Click prototype to enlarge information technology.)

Only click the Perform <due north> Updates push button at the lower right to instruct Patch My PC to download and update outdated apps; it does everything else automatically. That'due south why I've learned to relish and appreciate this program.

Why then, must I recommend a second tool? A look at that tool'due south output in Figure 5 beneath shows what's at piece of work: application coverage.

Option 2: Software Update Monitor (SUMo) free version

SUMo comes from French developer Kyle Katarn, a principal at software maker KC Softwares. This tool is practiced at tracking update status for a large number of programs (400+ or so).

keep win apps updated 05 sumo1 — Figure v: Where Patch My PC "sees" 28 applications on my PC, SUMo sees 60. (Click paradigm to enlarge it.)

As you can see in Figure 5, where Patch My PC tracks 28 apps on my production PC, SUMo follows 60. This is useful information.

The costless version of SUMo does application tracking but, and leaves updates to its users to handle. The fee-based version of SUMo (approximately U.s.a.$34 for a lifetime license) turns out to be something of a hit-or-miss proposition when it comes to automating the update process. For 80% of the programs it tracks, it handles updates automatically and completely. For the other xx%, the program stalls out at the maker's website, from whence users must continue to manually find and utilize relevant updates on their ain.

I tin't recommend the for-a-fee version because I firmly believe information technology should automate everything. But I do find the free version quite useful, because it shows me what I must track down on my own and update manually.

The programs that appear at the top of Figure 5 are informative and illustrative because they allow me to explicate how best to work with the items in need of update. Those items include:

Dropbox
Microsoft Edge
MiniTool Segmentation Sorcerer (MTPW)
PowerShell
SIW (Software Information for Windows)
Zoom

Of those programs, all include some kind of congenital-in update facility. In fact, I tin open Edge, MTPW, SIW and Zoom and run built-in updaters from their GUIs rapidly and easily. PowerShell updates when y'all enter the string iex "& { $(irm https://aka.ms/install-powershell.ps1) } -UseMSI" in an administrative session. And if Dropbox doesn't auto-update on its own (on this PC, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't), you tin visit its download page to take hold of a fresh, electric current re-create of the installer and run that to bring the program up to date.

An abbreviated rendition of the resulting SUMo update scan appears in Figure 6.

keep win apps updated 06 sumo2 — Effigy 6: Dropbox now shows as up to appointment, and there are 0 small-scale and 0 major out-of-date items. (Click epitome to enlarge it.)

Once you learn how to work from SUMo information, getting things updated becomes routine.

One more matter: sometimes update tools volition indicate at versions you won't be able to find, or that come from dodgy update sites. (Don't install those.) At other times, they'll signal to pre-release or preview versions yous may not want to install. My communication: don't obsess over such things. Every bit long equally near of your applications are electric current, one or two left-behinds won't kill you — or your PC.

Larn to piece of work with your tools, but don't spend too much time trying to cover everything to the last jot and tittle. That way lies lost productivity, if not madness! But if yous follow a regular update routine — nearly once a month is good — y'all tin keep your stable of Windows applications current, and your PC(s) bustling forth. Cheers!