Update application silently while running

My App will be initially deployed with Windows Installer.

The key characteristics of the solution I am looking for include:

• Support silent update while app is running (or automatically restart 开发者_开发百科client)

• Easy to maintain and manage packing process

• Avoid complex customizations or installation scripts

Do you have any ideas on how can I achieve this? Even if it means to modify the app code to support any idea.

Application is .net 2.0

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Have you considered using ClickOnce for deployment? It has a facility to programatically check for updates and optionally force them to be installed - see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404263.aspx

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• You can silently update your application by using the Restart Manager (available in Vista and Win7).
• Don't forget that a user is not alway the administrator. Since Vista if you sign your Windows Installer package you can update the application without needing administrator rights from the current user.
• For all this to work you need to install your application using the Windows Installer technology. You can use Wix to create an xml file and compile it to an .msi package. Wix integrates nicely with VS.

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The Proxy Design Pattern will help you achieve this while this is the pattern used for plugins.

Another short explanation is with the Gang of Four - Proxy Design Pattern.

Having an eye out the Shadow Copying of assemblies is definitely useful for the trick, as you shadow copy your updated assembly to your application assemblies folder, then you can make your application aware of changes, then unload the old assembly and load the new one for the changes to take effect, that is, without even having to restart your application, and this will be absolutely transparent for the end-user.

A more simple approach might be the ClickOnce Deployment which you might be interested to read about following the sugested link.