A lot of applications have a drop down menu item which allows the user to check for software updates. Is there a standard method for this? If so, what is done behind the scenes? Are they downloading a small file via FTP which details the releases allowing the application to compare to what is currently running then download the latest version if necessary OR....?
1 answers
There are also some applications which automatically check for updates each time the application is run and, if one exists, pop up a MessageBox to ask the user whether he/she wants to update or not.
This isn't something I've needed to do myself but I'm sure you're right that the application needs to download a file from the internet containing the latest version information and check it against the current version.
In fact, I found some code here which shows how to do it.
If you're using 'ClickOnce' to deploy your application, MS also have have some options for dealing with the matter which are described here.
Of course, you may have a problem with this approach if corporate networks block their users from downloading files from the internet.
answered one year ago by:
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