A question about writing a background/automatic/silent downloader/installer for an app in C#.
- by Mike Webb
Background:
I have a main application that needs to be able to go to the web and download DLL files associated with it (ones that we write, located on our server). It really needs to be able to download these DLL files to the application folder in "C:\Program Files\". In the past I have used System.Net.WebClient to download whatever files I wanted from the web.
The Issue
I have had a lot of trouble downloading data in the past and saving to files on a user's hard drive. I get many reports of users saying that this does not work and it is generally because of user rights issues in the program.
In the cases where it was an issue with program user rights every user could go to the exact file location on the web, download it, and then save it to the right place manually.
I want this to work like all the other programs I have seen download/install in this fassion (i.e. Firefox Pluign Updates, Flash Player, JAVA, Adobe Reader, etc). All of these work without a hitch.
The Question
Is there some code I need to use to give my downloader program special rights to the Program Files folder? Can I even do this? Is there a better class or library that I should use? Is there a different approach to downloading files I should take, such as using threads or something else to download data?
Any help here is appreciated. I want to try to stay away from third-party apps/libraries if at all possible, other than Microsoft of course, due to licensing issues, but still send any suggestions my way.
Again, other programs seem to have the rights issues and download capability figured out. I want this same capability.
