I wanted to provide a web update facility for my program B.exe and decided that the easiest way was to write a small control program, A.exe, which checked the web for updates to program B.exe and then starts, via ShellExecute, the latest version of B, perhaps B009.exe.
This all works very well. The problem comes when I try to update the control program A.exe. Clearly the new version must be called A.exe so that all the shortcuts work. I can download A.new and the only task now is to delete A.exe and rename A.new to A.exe. I have written a small console program C.exe that does this. The problem is knowing how to start C.exe. If I start with a ShellExecute from A.exe, the file A.exe seems to be locked even after A has finished and even if C.exe waits for two minutes before trying to change the A filenames. The A filenames themselves are not locked as I can change using Windows Explorer during the 2 minute wait. I can even change the names by hand-starting a different occurrence of C.exe. Starting C from B fails as the A file is still locked. I could place C.exe to be run on the next re-boot, but this seems messy and interferes with the user's control of his PC. Is there another option? All suggestions welcome. How do others update programs using the web? Bobby Clarke [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
