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Brains... we want brains...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I tried giving blood. They kept asking me where I got it from and why it was in a bucket. 
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I would give blood but when I try to give they ask all those silly questions;
Whose blood is it/
Where did you get it?
Why is it in a baggie?
I don't think they really want it!
They call me different but the truth is they're all the same!
JaxCoder.com
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So I've inherited this WinForms project for a customer who's a two hour drive away.
It's a fun project and a good customer, but the code quality is... It (mostly) works, let's leave it at that 
What's worse though, is the manner of deployment.
Which is each work station one by one 
Software on a USB and go.
Of course a couple of people aren't at the office or have another work laptop at home.
In that case it's phone them one by one and update using TeamViewer.
Since I'm not going there for every update (which can be ad-hoc and unplanned) the phone and Team Viewer option is used frequently.
I wrote a little program that closes the application and then copy/pastes a newer version from a file server which also happens to be someone's regular computer.
That way I only need to copy/paste the new version to a single computer and everyone gets the new version.
That sounds great except not everyone has file access to that computer (even though it has all the reports and the database as well).
Seems like I'll be updating individual workstations for a while...
Any sort of version control wasn't present until now, so everyone has version 1.0.0.0, but they can still be different code bases (but the individual code bases can never be recovered unless you do some reverse engineering).
Time to bring some change around here! 
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Quote: Software on a USB and go.
And that children is how virus travel...
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I thought that was "coughs and sneezes" - which sounds like a better deployment method than Sander has to put up with at the moment...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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why not:
1. do up a quick installer (innosetup or similar)
2. upload the installer to a drop box (only you have write access)
email out instructions with the drop box link to download the installer
done - including the 'at-home' machines
your installer can do all the tricky stuff such as create/read/update registry / folders, and even clean itself up afterwards.
even when I do get into a situation of needing to install a few machines at different locations I often use dropbox rather than a USB (I'll still email them the instructions so I don't have to hand-type the dropbox link when I get to them)
- some sites flat-out don't allow USB's to be plugged in
- some want to scan it first yay, my 64G USB filled with all your other goodies, waiting, waiting...
- too many people have windows auto-run/auto-open still set
... (first thing I disable, stupidest most dangerous idea ever and it's still the ms default setting)
... can install a virus to your USB if some ransomware has hooked into the autorun options
this internet has become nothing but fake news.
... time to fix it, time to get back to the fax!
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dropbox is easy, (or whichever equivalent, microsoft onedrivel, ...
they all have a web interface so as the upload you don't need to install any client (my pref to use web)
they all will generate clickable link you can send out in an email,
so these people don't have to know anything about how to use dropbox/onedr... or don't even need to know what it is
installer is less work than replacing a file (way way easier for the uneducated user)
- replacing a file: they have to know how to:
-- find the file on "d:\new version\app.exe", then click copy or ^C,
-- get to "C:\program flies\some-app\app.exe", paste or ^V ...
- installer: "click me"
if people worried about clicking links tell (write) them to phone you first for confirmation it's OK.
this internet has become nothing but fake news.
... time to fix it, time to get back to the fax!
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lopatir wrote: installer is less work than replacing a file (way way easier for the uneducated user)
True, unless the file replacement is automated
And since it requires no work from their end it's hard to not update.
lopatir wrote: if people worried about clicking links
These people aren't worried about anything IT related
lopatir wrote: time to fix it, time to get back to the fax!
Maybe I can fax them the new version 
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this might actually help you down the road, if your clients have internet access and this doesn't give IT a heart attack:
AutoUpdate: A GitHub Enabled autoupdater[^]
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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honey the codewitch wrote: doesn't give IT a heart attack
I just told you I update software one by one using USB to computers who may or may not have access to the central file server (which is someone's computer).
What makes you think they have IT?
They hired a third party to set up their internal network, but it failed a few times and they're not happy with them.
That's all the IT they have.
Other than that, I am IT now.
The source isn't in GitHub though.
I use Azure DevOps with Git.
The original programmer had folders like "Software_old", "software backup" and "software 04-05-2017" on his computer and that was his idea of source control.
I'm planning to bring everything to Azure in which case I'm not dependent on file server access anymore
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If Azure has a web front end and will let you publish "release package zips" that contain binaries to it you could just alter the url and the regular expressions the app uses to scrape.
I have no idea why anyone would use azure for source control though if they have a choice.
Eventually - give it a decade - microsoft will abandon it. Git isn't going anywhere. Even microsoft realized that which is why they snapped them up.
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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I'm not using Azure for source control 
I'm using Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS, basically TFS online) for my CI/CD platform, which has Git repositories.
Kind of like GitHub (with the brand new GitHub Tasks or what're they called), but with a Microsoft flavor.
And Azure DevOps integrates really well with .NET and Azure, unlike other CI/CD platforms like Jenkins.
Of course I'm not currently using it for anything CI/CD related here, but that will hopefully change.
So it's really a good choice and I don't see Microsoft abandoning it anytime soon
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ahh i misunderstood what you were doing. never mind.
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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I don't know what you thought, but give me some credit!
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Two words - deploy once.
Put the app up for download from a web site, it installs, and every time the user runs it, it checks from the original download url whether or not it an update is available. This is the absolute best/fastest/most secure way to deploy desktop apps.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Interesting, will look into it 
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This is what Azure is for.
Three generations later, and they won't even notice it's become a web app. 
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I have a similar issue with deployment. I work with a desktop-style app though, not a web-based one. To complicate matters, it talks to other instances of itself on other machines. They have a client-server relationship where there is one client and several servers and the client machine has the UI and is on the company intranet. As an added bonus, one site is five minutes away, another is three hours, and another is about ten hours away. I use ScreenConnect to access the ones that are far away and sometimes the closer one too.
My answer to this problem was to make the program have a self-update facility built in so it works easily over screenconnect, or similar remote control app. I go to the running app and select the update option. It prompts for a file and I choose the one I just sent to it over screenconnect. Then it gives a prompt, "Do you want to update from version w.x.y to version w.x.z?" If I choose yes, the running program starts up the new version and passes it the location of the running program and an argument that says update yourself to here. Then the older, running version terminates itself. The new one waits until the old one is gone, copies itself to the specified location, starts itself at the new location, and then terminates itself. There is another option to update the servers which copies itself over a socket connection to to the servers and they do the same process. It's a little tricky but it all works really well and is very simple for me to use.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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I think clickonce deployment would also fix the issue. I've used it internally and the users get used to the "checking for update" dialog on slow connections very rapidly.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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I wrote an article a long time ago(2011) on precisely this problem.
It's something I developed for installing updates for winforms applications from the interwebs or a network drive.
The code is probably not pretty but it did the job for around 70 users(I that scenario teh update was pulled from a machine on the local network).
Application Auto-update via Online Files in C#[^]
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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13 inches of snow so far, and another 7-10 projected for today and tonight. They say you gotta love it. I say, no I don't. 
It's much easier to enjoy the favor of both friend and foe, and not give a damn who's who. -- Lon Milo DuQuette
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