Program Update

[chapran]

We have the main executable file, let's call it MainProgram.exe. We also have Starter.exe file. Both are installed by setup package on the users workstations.
The startup icon (shortcut) for Starter.exe is located on the desktop of the workstation.
On the server we have MainProgram.exe
The user should start Starter.exe by double clicking on the shortcut. This utility compares versions of MainProgram.exe files on the server and workstation.
If they are different then Starter.exe replaces MainProgram.exe on the workstation with the version on the server.
Everything works fine within many years.
But by some reason some users make the shortcut to the MainProgram.exe and start the MainProgram.exe directly.
It doesn't allow to update MainProgram.exe automatically.

Any advice how to prevent direct start of MainProgram.exe please.

Thank you.

[DataMiser]

I suppose you could check to see if the starter.exe is running when mainprogram.exe starts and if not then terminate the mainprogram.exe, Perhaps give the user a message or perhaps launch the starter program and terminate the mainprogram so starter exe can do its job.

Another option may be to change the file extension of the mainprogram so that the system will not try to execute it if they click on it directly, setting its attribute to hidden may help as well.

[2kaud]

Does starter.exe start the program mainprogram.exe and then terminate?

Another way to consider is that when starter starts mainprogram starter passes a particular set of chars as a command argument to mainprogram. mainprogram checks the command arguments and if this specific one isn't present then mainprogram starts starter and then terminates. This way it won't matter whether the user started starter or mainprogram - the effect would be the same.

[chapran]

Starter.exe starts MainProgram, but doesn't terminate it. It terminates itself after its actions - checking difference and replacement if needed.

I will think about passing arguments. For now I do not know how it can be done.

Thank you.

[2kaud]

I will think about passing arguments. For now I do not know how it can be done.

For info about command line arguments see
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9...ommand-in-vb-6

[Arjay]

One way to do this is to use a named mutex that gets shared between the starter.exe and the mainprogram.exe.

The starter.exe creates the named mutex, does its update check, updates if necessary and then fires off the mainprogram.exe. When the mainprogram.exe starts, it checks for the mutex and if it isn't there, it displays an error message to the user and then exits.