The Thatcher, which keeps your apps up to date

What the Thatcher does#

The thatcher kept the manor's roofs mended, a little at a time, before the rain found a way in. The Thatcher keeps your apps mended.

Every 6 hours it asks Windows which installed apps have upgrades, reads each one's release notes, puts the security fixes first, and has the local AI say in one line what each upgrade changes. It never upgrades anything on its own: it installs only the ones you tick.

It holds Reeve's office while Castellan's developer features are off. With them on, Reeve holds it, and the Thatcher works behind it. See Hiring, switching and letting staff go.

The Thatcher comes with the Household license.

Where it finds upgrades#

From Windows' own package manager, winget, which knows most apps, and Microsoft Store apps it has a source for. An app winget doesn't know isn't listed. Asking only reads: nothing is installed until you tick it.

Security fixes first#

An upgrade is a security fix when its release notes name a known flaw (a CVE number, say) or speak of a vulnerability, an exploit or a security fix, or when the address of its notes says so. The Thatcher's code decides, never the AI, and the page quotes the line that decided it.

Many apps give only an address for their notes, not the notes themselves. The Thatcher doesn't fetch it, so such an upgrade is marked a security fix only when the address says so.

A line on what each changes#

The local AI reads each upgrade's release notes, and says in at most 20 words what it changes. The note is labelled with where it was written, and unverified. When there are no release notes, the Thatcher says so, and asks no AI. Without the local AI, the upgrades are listed as usual. See Set up the local AI.

Install your upgrades#

1. Open the Thatcher's page: Open on its card in Castellan.
2. Tick the upgrades to install. Security fixes come first.
3. Press Install the ticked ones, and confirm.

They're installed one at a time, quietly, and the page says which is under way. An app may close while it's upgraded: save your work in it first. An installed upgrade leaves the list, and the log says how each went.

Hold back, on an upgrade, means the app is never offered again until you take it off the list in Settings.

Its page#

The Thatcher's page is at http://thatcher.localhost:20404/. It shows the last round and Run now, the upgrades with their notes and why each is a security fix, the apps held back, and the install log.

The Surveyor reads the Thatcher's list too, for its app updates check.

Its settings#

What it can't do#

• Only what winget knows. An app installed some other way, with no matching package, isn't listed.
• Security is read from the notes' words. An upgrade whose notes don't say so isn't marked, even if it fixes a flaw.
• Some installers still ask, to close the app or for an administrator. Answer the prompt, or the install fails after 30 minutes.
• The AI's line can be generic or wrong. The release notes are on the page, folded under each upgrade.