C# 2010: Deploying Multiple Apps..Need Sure Fire Way To Update

Question

For starters I have whored myself out to the Internet in general as far as search is concerned. Got nowhere and am pretty Google proficient. Maybe I missed something..Enough of that.

As mentioned above C# 2010 (3.5->4.0 running on Win7x64 but would like the app to be fully compatible with XP/Vista). Dealing with XP(w/SP3) to Vista/7 clients. Working on an app that will allow my company to more easily connect to their local desktops via RDP. My app is awesome as far a usability, but eventually, my programming will catch up to me, bend me over, and do me hard.

I am looking for a sure-fire way to update the main app. I am deploying a secondary app to pull this off (app downloads updateApp from developer website if xml file has newer version, updaterApp updates main app; main app updates the updaterApp--if needed).

Looking for reinforcement or better ways to accomplish this as the app depends on admins + (possible) SQL + AD + SMB + SSH auth.

Things I have run into:

http://themech.net/2008/09/check-for-updates-how-to-download-and-install-a-new-version-of-your-csharp-application/ (at this point, what I like)

http://digitalformula.net/technical/c-self-updating-application-without-clickonce/

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/pfc/selfupdater.asp

So that's what I am looking at. Would love to find the right solution with details/great code/examples. I am MOST WORRIED about admin access in Vista/7 on the 'Program Files' directory look forward to the discussion. Hope all of the info is here. Thank you so much in advance!

Answer 1

What about clickonce?

Answer 2

Use clickonce

.net has this built in, we use it for our LOB apps, works fine.

Answer 3

I read good and bad things about ClickOnce. One of these days I will sit down and figure out how it works. For now I went with update code inside the main application. Its pretty kewl. It starts a new thread to download and run the MSI package. I found it here.

http://themech.net/2008/09/check-for-updates-how-to-download-and-install-a-new-version-of-your-csharp-application/

Hope that helps someone looking to spin your own. I liked this approach because I did not have to create a second program.