1. A method in a computing system, comprising: automatically receiving in the computing system a distinguished patch package for modifying behavior of an installed program, the received patch package having been transmitted to the computing system in a manner not synchronously responsive to any request issued by or from the computing system; automatically extracting from the distinguished patch package (1) patch application information, identifying a distinguished portion of a distinguished program against which the distinguished patch package is to be applied, and (2) patch behavior information, specifying a manner in which to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinguished program; automatically adding a distinguished entry to a patch table, the distinguished entry containing the extracted patch application information and patch behavior information; and directly in response to the addition of the distinguished entry to the patch table, using contents of the distinguished entry to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinguished program.