Can I replace a .NET EXE in the App Directory while the application is still in memory??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aaron Ackerman
  • Start date Start date
A

Aaron Ackerman

I have an updater that I have built and I need to replace a WinForms EXE
from the WinForms app itself. Can I do this while the EXE is in memory or if
not is there a work around?
 
Aaron Ackerman said:
Yeah I looked at that it really doesn't answer my question.



http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/msdnmag/issues/03/02/bits
Click to expand...

Can you have more than one instance of your app running at a time? If so,
then you could try the following:

1) Have the EXE rename its own file (example: MyApp.EXE becomes MyApp.BAK).
This can be accomplished with the System.IO.File.MoveTo method.

2) Copy the new EXE to the app's directory. Since you renamed the original
file, this copy should now work.

3) Launch the new EXE with the System.Diagnostics.Process.Start method

In C#, this might look something like this:

//------------------------------------------------
// Renames the current file
File.Move(@"RenameTest.exe", @"RenameTest.bak");

// Change the next line to get the new file from it's real location (such as
a network folder or a URL)
File.Copy(@"C:\RenameTest.exe", @"RenameTest.exe");

// Starts the app as a new instance
Process.Start("RenameTest.exe");
//------------------------------------------------

I tried this in a console app, and all seemed to go well. You might need to
put in code to clean up the backup file if it exists.

Usually, the kind of process is handled by a bootstrap .exe. You create a
small app that handles copying over new versions of the main app . This
small bootstrap app is the one that you launch each time you want to execute
the main program.
 
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