Deploy with your application

The update client executable is a stand-alone executable. This allows it to work with any application; There is no dependency on your application's programming language, IDE, tools or any necessity for you to integrate a DLL or to learn our API. So how should you deploy the update client with your application?

In this model the update client becomes a launcher for your executable. Simply make the update client your main application executable (call it something like AppLauncher.exe) and when run the client will run a background update check and launch your application.

This model is typically launched by a 'check for updates now' button from within your application. In this mode the update client will always pop-up and either display the update wizard or a message stating that no new updates are available.

You may want to run an update check from within your application, but to make it unobtrusive to the user. The background check will only show a tray icon pop-up message if an update is available. The user can then click on this tray icon to actually launch the update wizard.

The various command-line options will show exactly how to launch the various update client modes. Once your have decided on your deployment model, you will need to test with your application (for example, to check that a launch of the client with a /CheckBackground command-line option will really work) and then simply package the update client executable with your application installer. You may want to create a dummy update to see how things will work in practice (or check the update client log file to see that it is actually functioning correctly).

As an example, running "<UpdateClient.exe> /CheckBackground" would typically result in a pop-up such as the following:

You will likely deploy your application in environments where the user context does not have sufficient privileges for tasks such as copying files or modifying the registry. These are common cases if your application runs in a corporate environment or you are deploying on Vista machines. The AutoUpdate+ Permission Manager service is a further option to consider for your deployment.

· Your installation tool will need to run "<UpdateClient.exe> /PermissionManagerInstall" as a final installation task.