Grxmites

Hey whatups

this is my first post but i am wondering where should i start in making an a program where it pops up as a new update is available, or you can check if the file is already updated.

sorta like a windows update program but with my own stuff.
aka everytime a file is updated it pops out, tehres an update to this and that.


thanks

Ancient Dragon

I have not written one myself, but I suppose the first thing you need to learn is how to write a Windows Service program. You need a very solid knowlege of C or C++ to do that. If you already have a degree in computer science with a few courses in c and c++ then you might have enough background to start learning how to write a service program. This is pretty difficult stuff, so take your time to learn it well.

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lectricpharaoh

The basic idea here is to have your software periodically check for updates. You can do this by having it be aware of its own version number, or you could instead track the most recent time an update had been applied. You could even track which updates had been applied, in the event that you have a component-based software suite, with each update being discretionary rather than mandatory.

Once your code is aware of its own version, it can connect to a site (you'll need to learn how to do this) to check that it's up-to-date, and take appropriate action if not. This appropriate action might be prompting the user to download and install an update, or it might silently update itself (be careful if you choose the latter- many users are bothered by this sort of thing).

With all that, there are two main methods to handle the updating. The first is to check when the software starts up. This is the simplest method, especially if the software is regularly started and stopped. The second is to follow Ancient Dragon's suggestion of using a Windows service, though I think it's probably overkill for your purposes. A service-based updater is more suitable if you have critical software that needs to check at fixed intervals, whether or not the user restarts the software. Either way, you don't need C or C++ for a Windows service. You can also use any .NET language, like C#, to do it much easier. Here is one of many results I found on MSDN; one of the sample projects is a Windows service in C#. Of course, what language you pick really will depend on what you're comfortable with.

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hervens48

You might also want to check out AutoIt.
Its a simple scripting language that allows you to do some real neat stuff, especially when it comes to automating tasks.

www.autoitscript.com

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