KabanaSoftHello,
I have been using wyBuild to auto-update my application for quite some time now. It seems to work great for the most part, however, everytime i release an update, there is always a handful of users that email me and said the update failed because the shortcut icons to my application lose their association with my EXE file.
When first installing my application, the installer will place shortcuts to my software on both the user's desktop and the start menu.
Then, i release and update, and update installs fine on the user's computer, however, the icons that were placed on the desktop and start menu no longer work. They become disassociated with the EXE file for my application, and when the user clicks on the icon, they get the following error:
'The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable'. You can view a screenshot of this error here: http://www.placesscout.com/support/resource-unavailable-error-after-updating.png
Do you know why these shortcuts are broken after using your auto-updater?
Is there a way to fix this, or perhaps always update these icons so they point to the proper path of my EXE file everytime i auto-update my software?
Please let me know, your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated!
Best Regards,Mark
Hey Mark,
Is there a way to fix this, or perhaps always update these icons so they point to the proper path of my EXE file everytime i auto-update my software?
That's possible. In wyBuild, right click the *.exe file, click Create Shortcut, then drag that new shortcut icon to the "Common Desktop" folder.
KabanaSoftSam,
Thanks for the response. Here are the answers to your questions:
1) I am not using ClickOnce, just a standard Visual Studio Installation Project.
2) I'm not installing to the AppData folder, it installs to the Program Files folder. I do use the AppData folder for temporary storage but don't think this would have any effect on what is happening.
3) Yes, my EXE changes everytime i release an update to reflect the updated code...
One thing i'm not sure about...when i change the version of the product in the Visual Studio installation project properties (which i do for each update to reflect the new version), it always asks me that if i change the version, i should also change the product code. Typically i hit yes to change the product code. Wonder if this doesn't have something to do with it.
Its weird that it only happens on some people's computers...it actually happened on mine for the first time when i released my last update. Wonder if some sort of AV software isn't stepping in...any thoughts?
3) Yes, my EXE changes everytime i release an update to reflect the updated code...
Sorry, I meant to ask if you were moving the application directory on every new version.
Its weird that it only happens on some people's computers...it actually happened on mine for the first time when i released my last update. Wonder if some sort of AV software isn't stepping in...any thoughts?
The short answer is that this is a problem with your installer. You have a setting in your installer that detects "broken" versions of your software and tries to repair it. Unfortunately I don't know off the top of my head what the setting is that you need to disable.
I'll have to look into this. We should probably have a help article describing how to disable these self-defeating installer "features".
KabanaSoftSam,
Looking at the installer project properties, the only two i could see that you might be referring to are:
DetectNewerInstalledVersionsRemovePreviousVersions
Both of which i have set to false.
There is also an upgrade code with some GUID as the value.
If i take your suggestion of creating the desktop icon on each auto-update, will it replace the current icon on their desktop or create a new one?
Also, i have another question....can i change the download site for the update files?
If i take your suggestion of creating the desktop icon on each auto-update, will it replace the current icon on their desktop or create a new one?
It will overwrite the existing shortcut (if you use the same name).
Also, i have another question....can i change the download site for the update files?
Yes, change your download site, rebuild wyUpdate, and include the client.wyc file in your new updates. Also, if you're releasing new installers of your app include the latest client.wyc and wyUpdate in the installer.
There is also an upgrade code with some GUID as the value.
Have you been able to reproduce this problem yet? Have your customers given you the steps they took? Did they install from a network drive?
It would be helpful if we could reproduce this so we could track down the actual cause.
We're having the same issue where our desktop icons are broken after an update and are targeting the msi installer rather than the application exe. We are not able to fix pinned icon using the suggested method however we can fix the desktop icon. Though we've never had to do this type of fix before. We have had 5 production updates without any issues until now. We are only updating program files which are the .net bin > release files of our application. How would the installer be an issue at all here if we've not changed it since the initial release of the software and have had 5 good updates since. Please help as our production release is now on hold until this matter is resolved.
When wyBuild creates a patch it compares your old versions with the newest version. Files that exist in the old version that don't exist in the new version are deleted. That's likely what's happening in this case. So make sure your newest version has the shortcuts.
