Wrote our own automatic update software. So here's my tip... Don't do it!! Of-course this all depends on your specific scenario, but here are the problems that my company encountered:
- Difficult to support on an ongoing basis, especially if you target Win2k through to Windows 7.
- Challenges with permissions. WinVista/7 UAC can be a real pain.
- Flexibility is a requirement, but you won't be able to foresee all issues. For example, starting/stopping services, launching files etc. are all tasks that you MAY want to do for your automatic updates, but which you won't necessarily foresee.
The problem with our software is that we needed a lot of flexibility and support on all Windows platforms. The solution we wrote worked fine, but didn't scale and started to fail when Windows versions changed or weren't quite like those in our lab. We ultimately bought software and I recommend you do the same. If you are interested, we bought a product called AutoUpdate+ (link text).
