Auto update for WinForms application

Question

When creating an auto updating feature for a .NET WinForms application, how does it update the DLLs and not affect the currently running application?

Since the appli

Answer 1

Usually you would download the new files into a separate area. Then shutdown and restart and at startup you look for and use the new files if found. Always keeping a last known working version on the side so that the user can revert to something that definitely works if the download causes problems.

ClickOnce is a good technology from Microsoft that does this for you and you can use it directly from Visual Studio 2008.