Re: auto-updater

"Steve Zimmelman" <skz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46af458a$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
So how would you go about updating a client that has 200+ users with
on-going application development that requires frequent updates? It
doesn't seem reasonable to expect the IT dept to update each computer. By
the time they finish, another version would be ready. ;)

I have a client that has had me in that exact situation for the last 7+
years. The only way to solve it was to use a service that had sufficient
rights to install the updates. This course of action was approved by the
IT dept before implementation.

All my applications are built with an option to install a network setup
directory with the program information. Originally, the admin does the
initial setup of the program on a workstation by running the setup from the
network directory. Each app has two executables: the first is a simple
loader program that checks a file on the network to see if an update has
been set by the admin. If it has, it updates the local copy of the "actual"
program and then executes it. If no update, it just runs the "actual"
program as is. Even on Vista with normal privileges this works fine, though
I don't know why, no matter where the program is located on the local drive.
Even under the Program Files directory where there should be no privilege,
it works.

I am in the process of changing my install program (I wrote my own since I
like having special control :) so that installations are done to either the
users App Data directory or the common App Data directory. This should
prevent any future problems from developing.

Since the update can only be set by an admin, it works great. The admin can
even send an admin close message which will inform users that an update must
be done and exit out of the program automatically on any workstation.

Woody (TMW)


.

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