If a user switches his default browser from IE to Firefox, Firefox is NOT able to correctly launch the URL (it opens a dialog wether to download or to cancel the file)

The .bat code:

IF EXIST “%userprofile%\desktop\Application Name.appref-ms” (
start /min iexplore “URL shortcut file to update location”
) ELSE (del %0)

This code checks first on the desktop for application being present but it can be pointed to the AppData directory if desktop icon is not needed.

It then improves upon the internet explorer cleanliness by loading the application through IE in minimized mode.

It loads up and closes IE out before the user has a chance to even open IE. Not perfect but the best I’ve found so far.

Finally, I figured out the removal of the batch script from startup after a uninstalling the ClickOnce App.

With an Else statement if file does not exist(which it won’t upon the uninstall), the function

del %0

deletes the batch file itself and so clears the startup menu of this batch file.

All that is required is a reboot following the uninstall and the batch file will delete itself.

All I have to do to make this work is add this batch file to resources in my application(startup.bat or some such file name) and use File.WriteAllText to write it to the start up menu upon loading the app. Every time the application loads, I can check that this startup batch file is still present and rewrite it there if needed.

Hope this helps and let me know your feedback!

Next thing is, after the application(small window) is launched, it has some checkbox, drop down list, textbox.I want to set some value on it, How to do.

Thanks a Lot in advance.

I’m researching an idea that also requires clickonce. It should run on startup and be able to uninstall itself cleanly. I was thinking if it would be possible to install another executable (possibly deployed as a prerequisite) that runs at startup and would be responsible for locating and starting the clickonce app, but wouldn’t be a clickonce app itself.

It could uninstall itself when the clickonce app is no longer installed or, in my case, the clickonce app could uninstall it before it uninstalls itself.

I read that with script installers like NSIS it’s possible to do installs without user interaction, so that might still make it a clickonce experience, even though 2 apps are installed. It sounds a bit like a security issue to me so it might not be possible to install such an executable at all with clickonce, but perhaps it isn’t..

What’s your opinion, would it work in one way or another?

Dim userName As String
userName = Environment.UserName

If My.Computer.FileSystem.FileExists(“C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\YOURAPP.appref-ms”) Then

Else

My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile(“C:\Documents and Settings\” & userName & “\Start Menu\Programs\YOURAPP\YOURAPP.appref-ms”, “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\YOURAPP.appref-ms”, overwrite:=True)

End If

Product name : Your product name.

This will put ClickOnce program link directly to startup

Rebekah

yutube

when onload copy the new desktop shortcut to the applications executing assembly folder then delete desktop one if necessary

create registry run key with value set to the shortcut path now residing in the executing assembly
ie my_new_key c:\users\what-en-what\appref-ms

on restart isnetworkdeployed = true

hope this helps

I am publishing a new version of my app that specifies a specific CPU in order to support 64 bit systems. This “breaks” the clickonce automatic update. My workaround is to provide users the URL to launch the latest version and then, since it will have created a 2nd application, I want to programaitically uninstall the old version.

Any update on solving the uninstall issue?

Dim key As RegistryKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(“Software”)
key = key.OpenSubKey(“Microsoft”)
key = key.OpenSubKey(“Windows”)
key = key.OpenSubKey(“CurrentVersion”)
key = key.OpenSubKey(“Run”, True)
Dim rootdir = “”
If System.IO.Directory.Exists(“C:\Users”) Then rootdir = “C:\Users\” Else rootdir = “C:\Documents and Settings\”

key.SetValue(“QBCommenter”, rootdir + Environment.UserName + “\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\” + My.Application.Info.CompanyName + “\” + My.Application.Info.ProductName + “.appref-ms”)

You need to import Microsoft.Win32

Dim key As RegistryKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(“Software”)
key = key.OpenSubKey(“Microsoft”)
key = key.OpenSubKey(“Windows”)
key = key.OpenSubKey(“CurrentVersion”)
key = key.OpenSubKey(“Run”, True)
If key.GetValue(“YOUR_KEY_NAME”) Is Nothing Then

If System.IO.Directory.Exists(“C:\Users”) Then
key.SetValue(“YOUR_KEY_NAME”, “C:\Users\” + Environment.UserName + “\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\”+”PUBLISHER_NAME_HERE” + “\” + “YOUR_EXECUTABLE”)
Else
key.SetValue(“YOUR_KEY_NAME”, “C:\Documents and Settings\” + Environment.UserName + “\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\”+”PUBLISHER_NAME_HERE” + “\” + “YOUR_EXECUTABLE”)

@Dirtel Minder – Unfortunately that approach doesn’t work on Vista for ClickOnce hosted applications. It doesn’t work, however, if the application were running as a non-ClickOnce deployed application.

This will work on Vista and XP. When the app updates you can simply update the registry with the new exe path (since it changed on every deployment).

It should be that simple! Sure, you’ll get a Command Prompt window that will appear for a brief moment but that is typical of MS Windows (i.e. logging into some domain).

I hope this helps. Good luck!

If the user is offline when logging on to windows, the blank IE windows opens (is it actually trying to connect to the server specified in the short cut) and “Page cannot be displayed” pops up. Everything stops here.

This is not reliable because majority of the users wont be connected to the internet when they are logging on to windows unless they are on a network.

Here’s the code. You’ll notice the GetDeploymentDescription() method is asynchronous so you may want to wire up an event to fire when the information is loaded. In my case the code is contained within a class that has a string field ‘startMenuCommand’ which is set when the deployment information has been loaded.

Hope this works ok for you.

Cheers,

Andy

// utility class to extract publisher/suiteName/Product

public class DeploymentDescription
{
private const string descriptionElement = “description”;
private const string publisherAttribute = “publisher”;
private const string suiteNameAttribute = “suiteName”;
private const string productAttribute = “product”;
private string publisher;
private string suiteName;
private string product;

public DeploymentDescription(XmlReader xmlDeploymentManifest)
{
ExtractDescriptions(xmlDeploymentManifest);
}

private void ExtractDescriptions(XmlReader appManifest)
{
while (appManifest.Read())
{
if (appManifest.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element)
{
if (appManifest.Name == descriptionElement)
{
appManifest.MoveToFirstAttribute();
do
{
if (appManifest.Name.Contains(publisherAttribute))
publisher = appManifest.Value;
else if (appManifest.Name.Contains(suiteNameAttribute))
suiteName = appManifest.Value;
else if (appManifest.Name.Contains(productAttribute))
product = appManifest.Value;
} while (appManifest.MoveToNextAttribute());
return;
}
}
}
}

public string Publisher
{
get { return publisher; }
}

public string SuiteName
{
get { return suiteName; }
}

public string Product
{
get { return product; }
}
}

// utility class to build executable command

public class StartMenuCommandBuilder
{
private readonly string command;

public StartMenuCommandBuilder(DeploymentDescription deploymentDescription)
{
if (deploymentDescription == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(“deploymentDescription”);
command = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Programs);
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(deploymentDescription.Publisher))
command = Path.Combine(command, deploymentDescription.Publisher);
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(deploymentDescription.SuiteName))
command = Path.Combine(command, deploymentDescription.SuiteName);
command = Path.Combine(command, deploymentDescription.Product);
command = Path.ChangeExtension(command, “.appref-ms”);
}

public string Command
{
get{return command;}
}
}

// your code should do something like ……

if (ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed)
{
GetDeploymentDescription(ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment);
}

// method to asynchronously retrieve ClickOnce ‘Descriptions’ data from host URI

private void GetDeploymentDescription(ApplicationDeployment currentDeployment)
{
var inPlaceHostingManager = new InPlaceHostingManager(currentDeployment.UpdateLocation, false);
inPlaceHostingManager.GetManifestCompleted += ((sender, e) =>
{
var deploymentDescription = new DeploymentDescription(e.DeploymentManifest);
var commandBuilder = new StartMenuCommandBuilder(deploymentDescription);
startMenuCommand = commandBuilder.Command;
});
inPlaceHostingManager.GetManifestAsync();
}