
	$249.95 USD for single application or $999.95 for unlimited applications
	A"Hello World" example of The Software Update Wizard in action.

Quick Start

We recommend that you read this page from top to bottom! It will give you the best foundation for fully learning and exploiting The Software Update Wizard.

The Software Update Wizard lets you add 'update over the web' functionality to your applications with literally a single line of code.

It works with Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 98ME. It can be integrated with any development language capable of calling a Windows dll function or, launching a Windows process. It requires any version of Internet Explorer from 5.5 forward.

Your application simply calls a function from our 'wuw4.dll' DLL or directly launches our wuwstub.exe program. A single line of code in your application is all it takes to initiate an update check...

// Sample call to wuw4.dll from your application
WebUpdate("http://www.myserver.com/updates/updatescript.txt");

// Sample launch of wuwstub.exe from your application
ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "wuwstub.exe", "http://www.myserver.com/updatescript.txt", NULL, SW_SHOW);

(See here for other programming language syntax examples.)

A simple update can be implemented with a 3 line update script on your web server:

            [1]

            Filename=http://www.myserver.com/updates/MyApp.exe

            KillProcess=MyApp.exe

Just upload this script to the 'updates' folder on your web server, along with the new version of MyApp.exe and your updates are ready to go. The only processing requirement on your server is the ability to respond to standard http: protocol requests. No additional server-side processing is required as all the logic is executed by The Software Update Wizard on the client computer.

The Software Update Wizard fully supports updates on Windows Vista and also in XP/2000 environments where the logged in user does not have rights to 'Program Files' or other sensitive folders. It also supports automatic updates in a Windows Terminal Services environment.

The Software Update Wizard adds an overhead of less than 300K to your installer if you use our supplied wuwinstaller.exe installer program (which can be run completely silently, using the "/S" command line argument).

More..

The above example is the simplest possible update script. The [1] is the script block number - The Software Update Wizard's most basic way of keeping track of which updates have been made (but see RunAlways). The Filename keyword refers to the new version file on your webserver. The KillProcess keyword causes The Software Update Wizard to close any running instances of the specified application file so that the MyApp.exe file can successfully be updated to the new version. The Software Update Wizard then completes the update and automatically restarts the updated version of MyApp.exe.

The Software Update Wizard has many advanced capabilities. For example, you can put your updates in secure server folders, authenticate, version check, launch any number of processes either before or after the updated file is downloaded and installed, download and automatically unzip zip files, provide update information and prompts in any number of languages and much, much more.

Here is a more 'standard' script - a few more lines, but then, it does a lot more!

                    [1]

                    RunAlways

                    Filename=http://www.myserver.com/updates/MyApp.exe

                    KillProcess=MyApp.exe

                    Message=Hello <USERNAME>,||Version 2.1.0.1 of MyApp.exe is now available and
                    will be downloaded and installed for you.

                    FileVersion=2.1.0.1

                    [9999]

                    Message=You already have the latest version of MyApp.exe!

This script only updates the user's PC if their version of MyApp.exe is older than version 2.1.0.1, the version specified in the FileVersion line. The RunAlways line forces the script to be evaluated every time the script is run. The block [9999] part posts a message to the user in the event that they already have the latest version of MyApp. Please see our worked examples page for descriptions of a number of different scripts. Also, each keyword is fully described on the Keywords page.

You can use The Software Update Wizard Project Manager utility to help develop and test your Software Update Wizard scripts, along with the third party editor macro files we have supplied with The Software Update Wizard.

The Software Update Wizard does much more than just alert the user of an update. It:

Downloads and installs you application updates, (even if the user does not have rights to the application folder)
Downloads multiple files in a zip and automatically unzips them, or downloads a single file - the choice is yours
Advises the user of what is going on in the user's native language (using The Software Update Wizard's multi-language feature)
Runs any required processes on the user's machine, either before or after the update has been installed (e.g. the update file is your installer / patcher, The Software Update Wizard automatically launches it once it's finished downloading.)
Elegantly closes all instances of the application to be updated (even in a Terminal Services environment) and either restarts them once the update has been installed or advises all users that the update has been completed.
Lets you launch web pages to a planned frequency, which can either be used for marketing or product education purposes (independently of automatic updates)
Gives you a very high degree of control over the 'look and feel' of the update experience.

Here is our recommended route through the documentation. Please note that only selected help pages are included in our route to get you started with The Software Update Wizard. Please also see the Help Contents of this help file for the full documentation available to you.

First Principles.. more..	More information on The Software Update Wizard's capabilities.
Architecture	This topic describes the architecture of The Software Update Wizard and explains exactly how it works from a conceptual perspective, so that you understand the implementation and deployment options available.
Installation	This section explains how to deploy The Software Update Wizard within your own application installers.
A Worked Example	This section takes you through integrating The Software Update Wizard into your application. It then describes the sequence of what happens during an update, both from the user's perspective and also from a technical perspective.
Example update scripts	This section provides numerous examples of Software Update Wizard scripts together with a detailed explanation of how each one works.
Keywords: Alphabetical By category Detailed list	Every Software Update Wizard script keyword described in detail, with examples of usage.
Upgrading from V3 to V4	For users of earlier versions of The Software Update Wizard, this section explains that V3 and V4 can coexist if required, and also provides guidance for how you can use V3 to smoothly update your users Software Update Wizard versions to V4.
Working with Language Files	The Software Update Wizard can (optionally) support updates in multiple languages, so that you users see advices and prompts in their own language. This section shows you how to implement multi-language updates.
Campaign Manager	In addition to providing automatic software updates, The Software Update Wizard can also serve marketing campaigns to your users using a similar approach as update scripts. Your Campaign Manager script can control how often users see your campaigns, when they run from and whether the user has the option to decline the campaigns.
Troubleshooting	A big effort has been made in this version to provide developers with the maximum amount of troubleshooting information and feedback. This section explains how to troubleshoot script and deployment issues.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)	This is the FAQ page - a collection of hints and tips which you are recommended to read!

Getting Technical Support

If you need technical support or have any suggestions for improving The Software Update Wizard, please email us on support@PowerProgrammer.co.uk. We promise to reply to every message received! (Please include the text "Software Update Wizard" in your subject text in order to guarantee your email passes through our spam filters!)