install --update does not update all runtimes

[scorgatelli]

Install source and version

• Installed from the Windows Store
• Installed with the MSIX from python.org
• Installed with the MSI from python.org
• Installed with winget install 9NQ7512CXL7T

Version: 26.1

Describe the bug
The documentation states that "Passing --update will replace existing installs if the new version is newer. Otherwise, they will be left. If no tags are provided with --update, all installs managed by the Python install manager will be updated if newer versions are available."

However, when I have multiple runtimes installed and run py install --update only a single version is updated. To update the other versions I must specify the tag explicitly. Note that if I install both 3.13.12 and 3.14.3 (rather than 3.14.4 which is current as of this report), then try to update, neither version is updated.

See attached screenshots.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install an older patch version of python 3.14 and 3.13
2. Run py install --update
3. Only python 3.14 is updated
4. Run py list to verify that only 3.14 is updated

Expected behavior
All installed runtimes should be updated per the documentation

Additional context
If you have log files (check your %TEMP% directory!), drag-and-drop them here to include them.

[scorgatelli]

One other note. I was surprised that 3.14.4 was updated to 3.14.5.rc1. I wouldn't expect it to update to an RC version without some additional flag. Note that this behavior is different than when I explicitly specify the tags to update. When I specify the tags for 3.13 and 3.14, both versions are updated and it updates to 3.14.4 rather than the RC. See screenshot.

[zooba]

Hmm, updating to the RC was indeed unexpected, but we so rarely do RC's for bugfix releases that it's not too surprising the scenario was missed.

I can't reproduce the other issue, though. Are you able to share the log file from when it doesn't update? Or try with -vv added to the command to print all the logging output to the console?