Run Adobe Application Manager (PDApp.exe) in standalone mode

For some reason Adobe has decided that users don't need a separate icon for launching Adobe Update Manager. They want you to launch Photoshop or Illustrator, wait for that to load and then run the Updates. Updates that require the applications to be closed so that they can be updated. Classic Adobe.

Screw you Adobe. Once again you've dropped the ball and left the hard work to your customers. I fired up a copy of procmon and launched the updater using the official method. A little bit of filtering and this drops out:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\OOBE\PDApp\core\PDApp.exe" --appletID=UWA_UI --appletVersion=1.0 --workflow=Updater --mode=Manual --appLocale=en_US --appLEID=Photoshop-CS6-Win-GM

Ta-da! Throw that into a shortcut and PDApp.exe launches as if it's been launched from within Photoshop. There are probably other parameters that could be helpful but Adobe doesn't offer any documentation on PDApp.exe because when has helping the customer ever accomplished anything?