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I have an MS Office Word 2007 AddIn and a setup project that installs this AddIn.

I have gone for setup project as I have to perform some CustomAction during the installation Commit and Uninstall stages.

Is there any way the AddIn updates itself automatically from a Shared Network location or Website?

I do not want to write a cutom update routine. I did not go for ClickOnce installation as it does not support attaching Custom Actions.

I followed the setps in this website to update my AddIn, installed using a setup, by using ClickOnce update mechanism but the addin didnot update when I published my application. Any suggestions?

RedX
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user793886
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2 Answers2

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ClickOnce is supported - you can configure it via the Publish settings in the project properties. The default prereqs are included for you (PIA, framework, windows installer, vsto runtime). It's best to leave the update check at 7 day intervals (default) to prevent slow office application startup time (instead of "every time customization runs").

One issue with this is that if the user doesn't close the application (outlook, excel, etc.) for days - the updates will never get checked for (until it is closed and restarted).

Another issue with this approach is that you can't auto-install it for all users of a machine. The user must initiate the install.

Finally, you will need a publisher certificate to prevent the "publisher cannot be verified" message.

My recommendation is that you stay away from auto-updates (polling model) and use an administrative script (push model) to deploy changes to enforce when everyone receives the update. Of course the push model doesn't work unless you are in an enterprise setting and have control over users machines.

SliverNinja - MSFT
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When using setup projects the only way to update the product is to make something check for updates and manage those updates. Usually that "something" is an updater application.

Here is a thread with more details: What is the best way to auto update a windows application?

Another solution is to use ClickOnce, but this works only for ClickOnce applications. I'm not sure if Office add-ins support it.

Community
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Cosmin
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