how to setup/ update a visual basic application without reinstalling

[dave1816]

Hello,

I'm trying to find out how you go about updating an application once you have built it? Not sure if I'm using the wrong keywords in google search but I cannot find anything on this topic? I have currently built an app but more mods are required for it so ideally I want something where I dont have to reinstall the app on every machine when making adjustments...is this possible?

Kind Regards

Dave

 

[jmcilhinney]

Generally speaking, you create an installer for your app. When there's a new version you simply update the installer. It gets run on each client and automatically installs the new version, either over the top of the existing version or by automatically uninstalling the existing version first.

Microsoft created ClickOnce to ease the burden of deployment of Windows applications and you can create a ClickOnce installer using Publish wizard in VS. There are various configuration options but probably the most common is to have your app installed locally and then updated automatically. After each publish, you put the installer on a network or web server and the user downloads it and runs the installer the first time. You then put any update4s in the same location and, each time a user runs the app, it will check for available updates and automatically download and install the latest version if the current version is not up to date.

 

[JohnH]

ClickOnce has update functionality included, read all about it: ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications

 

[dave1816]

Thank you researched and applied