ClickOnce manual Update completes but doesn't update

Question

I have a VSTO Excel Template project that is Installed/Updated by ClickOnce. If I run an automatic update it updates fine, but I would like to give the user the option of a manual update.

The problem is that executing ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.UpdateAsync (or .Update) does not result in any errors, but the deployment simply just doesn't update. The version number in Add/Remove programs stays the same, and even more unusually the ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed flag switches to false.

Thus it seems that the only effect of running .Update is to set IsNetworkDeployed to false. The full code is a bit long, but basically it boils down to:

Private Sub ThisWorkbook_Startup() Handles Me.Startup
  Dim info As UpdateCheckInfo

    If ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed Then
        Dim AD As ApplicationDeployment = ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment
        info = AD.CheckForDetailedUpdate
        If info.UpdateAvailable Then
            AD.UpdateAsync()
        End If
    End If

End Sub

Chris Makey has blog where he [discusses a work around](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/krimakey/archive/2008/04/18/click-once-forced-updates-in-vsto-ii-a-fuller-solution.aspx) for this problem, but it doesn't really address the issue of why .Update doesn't work. I would much prefer a solution where I don't have to restart Excel. — QuinRiva, Sep 26 '13 at 01:44

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 18 '13 at 17:40

Sorry, but you have to restart Excel if you install a new version of your VSTO add-in and want it to be used. The reason for this is that when you start up Excel, it checks and finds the VSTO add-in, and copies the assembly to a shadow location. It does not run it from the ClickOnce cache. This is so if you do an update, it won't impact Office -- it will continue to run the assembly in the shadow location and you can update the version. But the new version will not load until you exit Excel and run it again, at which point it will copy the new version of the assembly to the shadow location and load it.

This appears to be the case. The work around is to write a separate tool that relaunches the Excel after the update, and opens the appropriate document. — QuinRiva, Nov 18 '14 at 22:50

ClickOnce manual Update completes but doesn't update

1 Answers1