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Automatic Upgrades for multiple users across a network

Hello Everyone,
Let me first
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Message 1 of 5
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Hi Steve,

      Sounded like an interesting question would follow!

Try posting your question again - this time remove the tab-key from your keyboard first. Smiley Wink

Cheers.

When they give imbeciles handicap-parking, I won't have so far to walk!
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Message 2 of 5
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I did not finish typing the question because while I was typing it an idea came to me and it seems to be working(i guess you just cant back out of the new message box and have it go away Smiley Happy).  I decided to have one executable located on the network that users can create a shortcut to.  I also placed a copy of the Labview Runtime Engine 8.0 in the same location and instructions that the runtime engine must be installed prior to running the executable.  This method allows multiple users to access the executable and allows me to make upgrades to the software, rebuild the executable, and when the user accesses his/her shortcut the upgrades are automatically reflected with no addition effort from the user.  So far no problems, if anyone knows of any problems that I have not addressed with this method I would be more than happy to hear them
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Message 3 of 5
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We do that.  Under a Windows network, the exe file can't be replaced unless all instances of it are closed.

Depending on the number of users you have, this can amount to walking over to a co-worker's computer and clicking the exit button (our original situation), to wandering all around the 80+ potential users, looking for open exe's and hoping no one has their desktop locked (our current situation).

Perhaps a better system is to write a small program that, when run from the network shortcut, copies the executable (and necessary support files) to a well-defined space on the user's computer, then runs it from there.  If you're feeling tricky, you can even make the users think it's all the same program.

Of course, this is just a special case of building an installer for your program.  More complex installers might even check for the run time engine, and install it if it's missing.

Joe Z.
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Message 4 of 5
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I used the installer method in the past and it worked fine.  I am just trying to get away from the user having to uninstall the first version and reinstall using the installer in order to get the new version.  Also with the installer method I cannot control what version the users are running.  With the single executable method all users will be using the same version.  Right now I am just going to have to send out an e-mail warning all the users that they need to close down their software so the update can be issued (alot less work than a reinstall for the user).
 
Thank you for your replies
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