What are some of the best ways of doing silent updates for a desktop app?

Question

Specifically, this is for a .NET 2.0 desktop application. Currently we require the user to manually go through the update process via our website.

What are the best ways of doing a silent or automatic upgrade of the client behind the scenes?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I would suggest a read of chapter 4 of Microsoft's .NET Applications Lifecycle Guide. The one I would promote is hooking up an Automatic Update system - you can write a small system to contact a web server that you own, check if there is an upgrade available, download and install the upgrade patch.

Answer 2

You may take a look at ClickOnce or Updater Application Block.