How can I roll-back a ClickOnce application?

Question

Is there a way (hacky will do) to allow a user to go back to a previous version of a ClickOnce network deployed application?

I\'ve looked in the docs and API and the

Answer 1

This can be done via reflection if you know the publisher URI and the name, version language public key token and processor architecture of both the deployment and the application.

The below code will try to rollback the "coolapp.app" ClickOnce application. If it can't roll back, it will try to uninstall it.

using System;
using System.Deployment.Application;
using System.Reflection;

namespace ClickOnceAppRollback
{
    static class Program
    {
        /// 

        /// The main entry point for the application.
        /// 
        static void Main()
        {
            string appId = string.Format("{0}#{1}, Version={2}, Culture={3}, PublicKeyToken={4}, processorArchitecture={5}/{6}, Version={7}, Culture={8}, PublicKeyToken={9}, processorArchitecture={10}, type={11}",
                /*The URI location of the app*/@"http://www.microsoft.com/coolapp.exe.application",
                /*The application's assemblyIdentity name*/"coolapp.app",
                /*The application's assemblyIdentity version*/"10.8.62.17109",
                /*The application's assemblyIdentity language*/"neutral",
                /*The application's assemblyIdentity public Key Token*/"0000000000000000",
                /*The application's assemblyIdentity processor architecture*/"msil",
                /*The deployment's dependentAssembly name*/"coolapp.exe",
                /*The deployment's dependentAssembly version*/"10.8.62.17109",
                /*The deployment's dependentAssembly language*/"neutral",
                /*The deployment's dependentAssembly public Key Token*/"0000000000000000",
                /*The deployment's dependentAssembly processor architecture*/"msil",
                /*The deployment's dependentAssembly type*/"win32");

            var ctor = typeof(ApplicationDeployment).GetConstructor(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic, null, new Type[] { typeof(string) }, null);
            var appDeployment = ctor.Invoke(new object[] { appId });

            var subState = appDeployment.GetType().GetField("_subState", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance).GetValue(appDeployment);
            var subStore = appDeployment.GetType().GetField("_subStore", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance).GetValue(appDeployment);
            try
            {
                subStore.GetType().GetMethod("RollbackSubscription").Invoke(subStore, new object[] { subState });
            }
            catch
            {
                subStore.GetType().GetMethod("UninstallSubscription").Invoke(subStore, new object[] { subState });
            }
        }
    }
}