ClickOnce Deployment

May 15th, 2007

ClickOnce is a new deployment technology available from Microsoft that comes with Visual Studio 2005. It has some neat features that could help you manage deployment of your applications over the Internet or a local Intranet but it also has some quirks that you need to watch out for as well.

First, let’s look at some of the advantages. ClickOnce deployment allows you to create self-updating Windows-based applications that can be installed and updated with very little user interaction. It also handles partial updates for you so that your users don’t have to do a full re-install of the program. ClickOnce only installs the changes. Since the applications are in a “sandbox” shared component conflicts won’t be a problem in many cases. Lastly, it can be installed by non-administrative local users who only have limited installation rights, thus reducing support time.

The biggest quirk that you’ll notice is that instead of installing to the standard “Program Files” directory structure the program installs to the user’s application “sandbox” area. This path is usually something like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\[UserName]\Local Settings\Apps\2.0\[code]\[code]\[code]"
.
.
.

It also installs on a per-user basis so that you will have as many copies of the program installed as there are users and you can’t install a ClickOnce app for All Users. If your target deployment systems are used by multiple users this could limit your ability to use ClickOnce effectively.

Also, although it allows a limited rights installation it does require writing to the registry in the installing users area. Some system admins have disabled this ability so this may also limit its usefulness.

Managing common user data areas is a bit tricker with a ClickOnce application. My.Computer.FileSystem.SpecialDirectories.AllUsersApplicationData does not return the
actual “All Users” data folder but a data folder in the ClickOnce “sandbox” cache. You’ll need to use
Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData to get the “All Users” folders on ClickOnce deployed apps.

For more information on ClickOnce deployment, see this MSDN article: ClickOnce Deployment Overview

Entry Filed under: Tip Sheets

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