How do popular applications update and install?

Question

I know this question has been asked lots of times but mostly I couldnt find the answer I was looking for.

How do popular applications update themselfs ? I found some libraries that update applications but mostly they just replace all the application files. This way my Updater would need to download around 200mb everytime.

Also ClickOnce is used a lot but this in my oppinion is an ugly way to update and install because the GUI is not really fancy and you can't even specify where to install the application.

I know some applications also replace the installer and just run the new one to deinstall the old version and install the new one but that cant be that right way...

So how do Programs like Mobirise, Discord or Teamspeak update themselfs ?

Answer 1

I have a have made a POS Solution(C#), working in 4 Shops. This is what i've done to give client side updates. Used Google Drive to upload installer file + a text file mentioning installer version, once uploaded each time the programe starts up it downloads the version text file from Google Drive, if it doesn't match the current version of the software which the clients Has, Messagebox Prompts a newer version is avaliable. Client then can click Upgrade and it will download the installer file, once downloaded software exits completely calling a python script which will Run the installer file. This is not the best way but it works, becouse Google Drive has its own file version history which makes it easy for me to keep track of updates i send. Hope I Helped <3