Clickonce application does not update or launch.

Question

I have a winforms application that I have deployed using clickonce, but the users navigate to a network drive and double click on setup.msi instead of using a webpage to install it.

I have two users that have it installed and it's worked in the past. I did an udpate last week and now when the users try to launch the application the window that says "Verifying Application Requirements" pops up then when it disappears nothing happens. The dialog asking if it's ok to update never pops up.

The network people have verified that they have permissions on the network drive (though, I would expect an error message if this were the issue).

Any clues what could cause this to happen?

Answer 1

• Did you bump the publish version ?(though, the publish wizard should do this automatically)

• Did you change anything - such as the assembly names ?

• Did you mark the update as a mandatory update ? (that is, setting the minumum required version equal to your new publish version) If not, chances are some user clicked 'Skip' on the update, and the app won't try to update itself for another 7 days. Those users have to uninstall their current app, and manually install your new one - or wait a week.

Answer 2

Have the users recently installed drivers for Kensington hardware (e.g. mice or tracballs)? There is a driver bug that causes ClickOnce applications to behave in a manner that's very close to what you're describing. Here's one discussion of the issue.