UCheck shows "Location: Unknown" for multiple apps

[JD4923]

I recently started using UCheck (Premium), and mostly it works well. However, for multiple apps it shows "Location: Unknown". Examples:

• In the Updates list: Mozilla Maintenance Service [64 bits]: It shows a very old version, with no location. The standard installs are current, so I have no way to find this old one.
• In the Installed list: Various apps installed in standard locations have the Location field empty, e.g., Notepad++, PuTTY

UCheck must know where the files are, to have checked the version. Why doesn't it show that path under Location?

Thanks.

[Curson]

Hi JD4923,

Welcome to Adlice.com Forum.
UCheck use Windows Registry to check for installed applications and their respective version number. For example :

Code: [Select]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Everything]
"DisplayName"="Everything 1.4.1.1015 (x64)"
"UninstallString"="C:\\Program Files\\Everything\\Uninstall.exe"
"Publisher"="voidtools"
"EstimatedSize"=dword:00000c00
"DisplayIcon"="C:\\Program Files\\Everything\\Everything.exe"
"DisplayVersion"="1.4.1.1015"
If the "UninstallString" and "DisplayIcon" fields are empty, RogueKiller has no way to know where the application is located.
These fields are populated by the application installer, so there is no way for us to fix this at the moment.

Regards.

[00Eraser00]

That's good to know, but there are a couple of applications that have both but have no path listed. Do both keys need to be present or is one of them enough?

Like JD4923 mentioned Notepad++ for example

Code: [Select]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Notepad++]
"DisplayName"="Notepad++ (64-bit x64)"
"Publisher"="Notepad++ Team"
"MajorVersion"="8"
"MinorVersion"="6"
"UninstallString"="\"C:\\Program Files\\Notepad++\\uninstall.exe\""
"QuietUninstallString"="\"C:\\Program Files\\Notepad++\\uninstall.exe\" /S"
"DisplayIcon"="C:\\Program Files\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe"
"DisplayVersion"="8.6"
"URLInfoAbout"="https://notepad-plus-plus.org/"
"VersionMajor"=dword:00000008
"VersionMinor"=dword:00000006
"NoModify"=dword:00000001
"NoRepair"=dword:00000001
"EstimatedSize"=dword:00004ed8
or MediaInfo

Code: [Select]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MediaInfo]
"DisplayName"="MediaInfo 23.11"
"Publisher"="MediaArea.net"
"UninstallString"="C:\\Program Files\\MediaInfo\\uninst.exe"
"DisplayIcon"="C:\\Program Files\\MediaInfo\\MediaInfo.exe"
"DisplayVersion"="23.11.1"
"URLInfoAbout"="http://MediaArea.net/MediaInfo"
"EstimatedSize"=dword:0000532a
"NSIS:Language"="1031"
or Steam

Code: [Select]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Steam]
"DisplayName"="Steam"
"DisplayVersion"="2.10.91.91"
"Publisher"="Valve Corporation"
"URLInfoAbout"="http://www.steampowered.com/"
"HelpLink"="http://support.steampowered.com/"
"DisplayIcon"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\uninstall.exe"
"UninstallString"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\uninstall.exe"
"NoModify"=dword:00000001
"NoRepair"=dword:00000001
And some more. I can list them all if you like.

[Curson]

Hi 00Eraser00,

I'm pretty sure that Notepad++ was reporting location before.
It looks like a regression to me.

I will ask Tigzy to look about this. In the meantime, no need to post the full list, we need to review the code first.

Regards.

[JD4923]

Thanks Curson for the explanation, and 00Eraser00 for the confirmation and additional info.

I think there's also a separate issue with portable apps, though I can't reproduce it now. Presumably portable apps are found by scanning for all program files - how else would they be found? And if so UCheck should be able to report where they are. Or are portable apps detected some other way?

I ask because after installing UCheck and running an initial scan it was reporting an old version of PuTTY (0.78), and a very old version of Mozilla Maintenance Service (115.5.0), both with "Location: Unknown." I eventually concluded:

• The PuTTY install is a subset included with WinSCP. The UCheck message disappeared on its own after I installed PuTTY 0.80 to update the regular install, though the 0.78 files are still part of WinSCP
• The Mozilla Maintenance Service installs are due to 2 separate portable Firefox installs. I deleted the maintenanceservice.exe files from each install which seemed to resolve the issue, but restoring those files hasn't caused UCheck to start alerting on them again.

So what is the logic for detecting and reporting on out-of-date portable installs?

Thanks.

[Curson]

Hi JD4923,

Presumably portable apps are found by scanning for all program files - how else would they be found?

Indeed.

Or are portable apps detected some other way?

Portable apps are located by enumerating the filesystem. Installed appplications are enumerated using the Registry.

Subset applications should ultimately not be listed. It's the job of the main application to keep them updated.

Regards.

[DrStrange]

Hi,
To fix uCheck (v 5.2.2.0) not showing a location for some programs, I examined the registry and found that for those programs the data for the registry string key InstallLocation was blank or the InstallLocation key was not present in the program's

Code: [Select]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ or

Code: [Select]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ registry key. Once I added this to the registry, uCheck showed the location for all those programs

I wonder would this also solve the problem where certain programs, because they do not update their registry DisplayVersion key when they update, so after they update they are shown by uCheck as not up to date, a well discussed example being Macrium Reflect.   

For example, this allows uCheck (and the Programs and Features Control Panel app) to show the location for MKVToolnix:

Code: [Select]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MKVToolNix]
"DisplayIcon"="C:\Program Files\MKVToolNix\mkvtoolnix-gui.exe"
"DisplayName"="MKVToolNix 82.0.0 (64-bit)"
"DisplayVersion"="82.0.0"
"InstallLocation"="C:\Program Files\MKVToolnix\"
"NSIS:StartMenuDir"="MKVToolNix"
"Publisher"="Moritz Bunkus"
"UninstallString"="C:\Program Files\MKVToolNix\uninst.exe"
"URLInfoAbout"="https://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/"


[Curson]

Hi DrStrange,

You are right.
Manually feeding the Uninstall applications subkeys fix the issue.

However, it's not a method that is practically sustainable.
First, messing with applications entries is not recommanded but let's imagine UCheck to do it, it will pose two major issues :

• UCheck does not know the information to add. We would need to create a second database and a routine to check and add missing informations and registry values periodically.
• After an update, the Uninstall subkey content is also updated, which mean we would need to find a way to synchronize new information added by the update with the existing values of the secondary database.

In summary, it would be a lot of work on our side and a great source of potential issues with wrong names, pathes, and versions.
We believe it is more productive to contact editors and ask them to properly fill their subkey when installing/updating their application.

Regards.

[DrStrange]

Hi Curson,

I agree completely with your reply: The relevant program owners should be contacted and asked to include all of these subkeys in the Uninstall key during installation and also the program owner should ensure that the relevant subkeys are updated as required after a program update is installed. It is not uCheck's responsibility to add subkeys to the Registry that should have been added by the respective program's owners. uCheck is a software updater, not a software updater and registry repair program.
I was merely replying to the OP to explain why uCheck was not finding the path under Location and to provide information allowing the path to be manually added to uCheck if the OP wished to do so.

In any regard, adding the program's path to the location is only a cosmetic operation ie it does not affect uCheck's ability to determine the currently installed version. It is more important that the DisplayIcon and DisplayVersion keys are present and that the DisplayVersion key shows the correct version currently installed.

Thank you.

[Curson]

Hi DrStrange,

Thanks for the clarifications.

Regards.