How to count the number of times a ClickOnce program has been installed/updated?

Question

What is the best way of counting the number of times that a ClickOnce-deployed program has been installed or updated? Also, is it possible to somehow track who is installing or updating it (e.g., geographically)?

Answer 1

ClickOnce has an API that you can use. Checking the value of ApplicationDeployment.IsFirstRun on application start and do what you need to do there.

Answer 2

My ClickOnce application requires a login, so it is pretty easy to tell who is using the program from their registration and also their IP address.

Another way to do it is to check the server logs for hits on your packages. If you have it set up to check for updates on every execution, it'll hit the .application each time and when there are changes, hit the packages.