Updates: full installation or just replacing the executable

On one occasion, when a new update became available, I tried to install it without uninstalling the old version and it ended up getting its knickers in a twist. Since then I've always uninstalled the existing version first but it makes me re-boot the PC ever time, which is a bit annoying. My question is this: is it always necessary to do a full installation or can I get away with just replacing the executable using the one from the portable download?

Full installation also updates the file deskband.dll which apparently is the desk band. The file is in use by the Windows shell and that's why causes the installer to reboot. You can postpone the reboot for as long as you like, you will be just using an older version of the desk band (and the current version of NetWorx).

I advise to perform a full installation over an older version, without rebooting if this is a problem. You will get the current NetWorx, but an older version of the desk band until you reboot the PC. The portable build differs from the installable one as the former does NOT contain the code needed for the desk band. In other words, if you replace installable networx.exe with portable networx.exe, the desk band won't display usage data.

Thanks Andrew.

Is there any procedure I could go through which would save the need for a reboot? I'm thinking in terms of turning off the desk band toolbar and manually unregistering the DLL before beginning the installation. If not, it's only a minor niggle which I'm sure I'd learn to live with.

Yes, kill explorer.exe using the Task Manager before installing NetWorx. This will release the desk band DLL. Then install NetWorx and launch explorer.exe again to restart the shell.

Thanks Andrew, I'll give that a try with the next update.

Well I tried your suggestion Andrew and it can't quite be done in the way you suggest because Explorer automatically restarts itself after you kill the process. And by the time I'd re-opened the download folder to install the new version of NetWorx, it seemed that Explorer had a handle on the toolbar again. I thought it was probably just a timing issue, so I decided to write a vbScript to close explorer and run setup for me and I'm pleased to say it worked. So, for anyone who has the same difficulty I had, here is the procedure:

1. Switch off the Desk Band toolbar and close NetWorx.
2. Open Notepad, paste in the code below, and save it as a vbScript file (something like Reinstall.vbs will do).

For Each winProcess In GetObject("winmgmts:".ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_Process"
    If LCase(winProcess.Name) = LCase("Explorer.exe" Then
        winProcess.Terminate
        sNetworxSetup = Replace(WScript.ScriptFullName, WScript.ScriptName, "" & "networx_setup.exe"
        Set Shell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell"
        Shell.Run Chr(34) & sNetworxSetup & Chr(34), 1, false
        Exit For
    End If
Next

3. Put the file in the same folder as the new NetWorx_Setup.exe file.
4. Run the script file (on most systems that's just a double-click, but if that doesn't work you may have to open it using WScript.exe which can usually be located in the Windows\System32 folder).
5. Your desktop icons will momentarily disappear and any open explorer windows will be closed, then the setup program should start up immediately. Everything should just go through as normal from there on in, with no need to re-start Windows. Hurray!

Hmm, the procedure above worked just fine on my Vista machine, but I've just tried it on an XP machine and it still insists on needing a reboot. Do you have any other suggestions Andrew?

Not really. But don't be too much concerned about this. If you do not reboot, you will get the latest functionality yet may be with an older build of the desk band. Since the desk band's features haven't changed in past several releases, you can just defer the reboot and work normally.

Okay, cheers Andrew.
In light of that, might I suggest that you add a line to the "quick info" panel on the download page, to indicate whether the Desk Band has been modified since the previous version? That way people will know straight away whether to reboot or not.

That wouldn't be useful actually. What if the user skipped one or two releases? There's a changelog though which says what has changed.

Right you are...