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Baol Posts: 3
25/01/2018
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Hi, greetings to all from Pisa, Italy.
I apologize in advance if I will say and will ask for obvious things, but I could not find information about it.
I use Symenu (for me, the best program of its kind, there's no need to say it)
and many portable applications directly on my Hard Drive.
Reasons are the great flexibility of portable applications in comparison to installed application
(for example, changing versions/settings/data is just a matter of moving 2 folders)
and the fact that resetting the system is much faster
(format, reinstall O.S., put back my portable apps folder and I'm almost done).
Probably portable apps are slightly slower and less integrated with the system:
that involves some problems but I accept them quietly, I consider them much less than the advantages.
One of the above-mentioned problems is that usually it's not possible/advisable to update apps through their integrated functions:
doing so, often turns portable apps into installed ones; so you have to update them manually.
I didn't say anything that you all do not already know well:
manually updating apps is an extremely boring/time consuming process, so I'm always happy when I find an alternative.
That's the reason why I've moved to SPS Manager all my apps that it supports.
And here is my problem: it happens that an app has an update, but the SPS doesn't report it (yet).
It's ok, I understand there's life outside the PC  , so SPS may not be immediately updated;
but there are apps that have not been updated for several months , and they are not yet.
In that case, I'd revert to do a manual update but there's no way to update manually the apps and make the SPS Manager accept them:
if You try to do it, even renaming suitably the XXX.sps.version file in the app folder,
the SPS Manager relies on its XXX.sps file only (contained in the YYY.sps.zip file, in the "cache" folder), sees the version it's different
and claims there's an update, no matter if it actually refers to an older version.
Of course, if You do it, the app rolls back to the version stated by the SPS Manager.
You can avoid this by extracting the appropriate XXX.sps from the zip file, editing it, putting it back to its place and
restarting Symenu/SPS Manager:
obviously, that's not a solution (I just did it as a test); moreover, You loose the file the next day, when You check for newer definitions.
You can rename your XXX.sps.version file to 0.00.sps.version, so SPS Manager will not tell anything about updates
but you cannot see which version you really have in the SPS Manager greed, loosing a useful information.
I even tried to create my personal SPS file
(by the way: _CacheCustom folder is not present in the SyMenuSuite Folder and if I create it, it's ignored.
Path is [...]SyMenu\ProgramFiles\SPSSuite\SyMenuSuite\_CacheCustom),
SPS Builder says it's correct, but I cannot see the app in the SPS Manager.
Anyway, it would not be very useful for a single user:
when the update is missing for a long time, it would be better (with regrets) to renounce to SPS, put the apps back in their previous state
and go back to completely updating them manually; it would take less time.
Unless there is something I have not understood:
is there a way to make manual updates acceptable for the SPS Manager?
If I understood correctly and there is currently no way to do it, do you think it will be possible in the future?
Thanks and bye.
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Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1274
25/01/2018
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Welcome to the forum Baol.
I'm extremely surprised how much you dig in this SPS thing. If you like this technology so much, I'm always opened to recruit new editors
I will try to reply to all your questions and to clarify some little details you probably haven't considered.
Yes it's true, there's life outside PC but there's a human being behind every SPS too. So if an SPS is outdated it's probably because the editor didn't notice this change. You have a link inside SyMenu that is called Contact reviewer. Use it to ring an alert to the editor.
This is surely the main reason for which an SPS is outdated, but we have others.
Some programs, starting from a certain version, have become shareware or subject to a fee. Since the SyMenu suites only host freeware software, we are forced to maintain the last free version and avoid any further update.
There are programs that have a more recent version but without a corresponding portable version. We publish only portable programs.
Some programs strongly use the beta channel to release their new version. And some of them never go official. We publish only official versions.
Probably there are other reasons but I don't remember any other in this moment.
You ask for a workaround.
If the message to the editor doesn't work, the easiest way to workaround the issue is to create your own suite: https://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuManual.aspx#CustomSuites
Probably your attempt with the _CacheCustom folder comes from an outdated document you find somewhere on this web site, I guess the source could be this same forum... shame on me... I should clean up outdated thread.
The right way to create your custom suite is creating a new folder at the same level at the other ones, and inside the new folder create a _Cache subfolder. Inside the _Cache folder you can add the original SPS grabbed from the zip. At this point you can modify the extracted SPS as you like for example using the SPS Builder, and, since it is located inside a custom suite, no one will change it except you.... but, man, you are almost an SPS editor at this point, so you can help the entire project taking care of that poor SPS for all the users.
Another workaround is to move the SPS program directly inside the SyMenu ProgramFiles folder and add the corresponding item manually in SyMenu, and, again, no one will touch it.
The SPS system is an extremely controlled system. This strict control puts SyMenu in charge for everything so the user can only choose to add, update, remove a program, all the other details are transparent. Obviously every attempt to force the system is treated as an anomaly to fix.
Tell me if it's all clear and feel free to contact me in private if you want to speak in Italian 
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Baol Posts: 3
26/01/2018
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Hi Gianluca,
first of all, many thanks for Your really prompt reply, just a few minutes after my post;
it's been greatly appreciated.
Everything is perfectly clear, you explained yourself well.
I have to check the specific cases (not many, actually) of the missing updates,
but I'm quite sure the cause is, for almost everyone, one of those you mentioned.
For those remaining: I saw the Contact reviewer but I've never used it because,
if the delay is short, I wait safely (life outside the PC...),
or we talk about several months and then I thought it was useless to warn.
For example, Emsisoft Emergency Repair Kit, which I believe is free for personal use,
is Version 2017.4.0.7437, released on 2017/06/01 in SPS Manager,
while You find Version 2017.12.0.8334, released on 2018/01/02 on the site of the producer.
Regarding the _CacheCustom folder, You are right: I found the relative information on this site or forum,
I really don't remember where, because I've saved and tried all the information that seemed relevant to me,
and I definitely lost myself among them, without noticing that this was obsolete.
I'll certainly try the workarounds You suggest, and see if I succeed.
I'll keep in touch.
Thanks again.
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Baol Posts: 3
26/01/2018
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I forgot to say that, regarding my example of Emsisoft Emergency Repair Kit, the latest release is very recent, but there have been other previous updates in 7 months.
Bye.
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