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I work in a installation of a big legacy application. The application is written in Visual C++, the installer is made using InstallShield and we have to support Windows XP and Windows 7.

I would like to set a system to be able to selectively update the application remotely. It is not the "normal" system where an installed application checks for updates but I want to be able from the server to decide which applications can be updated and which one can't.

Is there any standard to do so? Which alternatives do you know? Is there a way/API to use Windows Updates for your own applications?

Thanks in advance,

Javier

Javier De Pedro
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2 Answers2

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I don't see how this is different from a regular update system. The server part always determines which updates are available for a specific version. Your application only checks to see if something is available.

You can read more about handling updates here: What is the best way to auto update a windows application?

Community
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Cosmin
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  • It's different in the way the update or not decision will not depend only on the software version. I want to be able to decide if there is an update based also in an installation ID, the IP address, or any other client specific information. – Javier De Pedro Nov 09 '11 at 09:01
  • So won't the client updater query a database or something on the server? For example it can access a script which returns the configuration. The update configuration is still on the server. – Cosmin Nov 09 '11 at 09:21
  • I know I can do it by myself...but my question is about any Microsoft supplied technology or any other supplier. Is there any technology that allow me to do what I want? – Javier De Pedro Nov 09 '11 at 11:01
  • Advanced Installer has an updater which supports custom validation for a specific license: http://www.advancedinstaller.com/user-guide/updater-advanced-functionality.html – Cosmin Nov 09 '11 at 11:45
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Anyway this is like the normal system. For server to decide whether to update app or not or select components for update, the application has to connect to the server, provide the server some data. Then the server instructs the application to download updates or says there are no updates. It is the responsibility of the application to download and apply updates to the local system because server cannot push files to user's computer.

Alexey Ivanov
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