Are there any major problems with using .NET One-Click deployment?

Question

I'm deploying an app to an unknown number of clients. It'll be 5-10 to start, couple dozen eventually. I'm thinking of making a different web folder for each client, so I can control updates and roll them out in a gradual manner.

Are there any major known issues with One-Click deployment? Am I going to commit suicide shortly after golive?

Answer 1

For one thing, ClickOnce deployed applications must be installed for each user on a given workstation. There is no way to install for all users via ClickOnce. This is because ClickOnce deployed applications install under the user's profile folder, not under the "Program Files" folder.

Answer 2

We've been using ClickOnce here for the better part of 3, maybe 4 years, and have never experienced any major problem.

The only minor problem we experienced was with code signing in the Visual Studio 2005 version of ClickOnce - the app would fail to run if the CS certificate was changed, and we'd have to uninstall/reinstall. But that has been fixed since Visual Studio 2008, and I haven't noticed any other issues.

ClickOnce is fairly limited compared to MSI installers or other types of installers - you don't have an incredibly robust system of pre-install and post-install actions, registry keys, startup registration, etc., but that's to be expected since ClickOnce deployments are meant to be run in a low-privileged environment.