Right now I’m working on a open source asp.net mvc project and once I get that polished enough, I can devote some time to this again. I estimate 2 months.

One of the things I want to do is bring bin patching and easier update creation and deployment. That would require some major UI and code changes to the SDK and that will take a bit of time.

I elaborated a bit on what I want to do in an earlier post. A compressed file containing the update info and the bin patches for that update. Then each update is versioned so it can all be chained bin patched up to a max of 3 prior updates. The other would be a full binary compressed file that would be used if the patch fails or the version on system is too old to be bin patched.

I also will take a bit of time updating the Seven Update UI as well. Depending on the availability of metro controls for WPF, I plan on incorporating some of those elements. Removing the sidebar and go with top metro style navigation.
Change the back button from aero to metro.

The priority and first thing I do will be adding bin patching. Currently uses uncompressed files, which is bandwidth wasting. Compressed binary patches will allow smaller updates with tiny install time trade off, should still be 30% or more faster because of the lower download times

I plan on releasing another minor update to fix a crash if a task dialog is shown soon. I’m still working on the bigger 2.0 update that will bring delta patch updates and a easier SDK for the new process. I plan on having a beta before the end of the year. Once it’s in a usable state, the dev channel will receive it. When that time comes, you will be able to switch the release channels from within the settings page in Seven Update.

Update 9-15-11

That update has been released:
[all] Fixes all crashes related to opening TaskDialog is various situations.
[SU] Fixed the reboot needed message not displaying if you execute Seven Update again without rebooting.
[SU] Fixed unable to close TaskDialog when pressing the add button when adding a custom app to the list.

• Command-line arguments are supported! Example usage: Setup.exe -sdk -auto -promptreboot
  • -silent or -s: No UI and completes the installation without any prompts.
  • -sdk: Installs Seven Update SDK files along with Seven Update.
  • -forcereboot: Reboots the system when installation completes. If -silent is used, reboot will be automatically, if not that will be the only option available when installer is complete.
  • -promptreboot: Shows UI that asks the user to reboot the system, with an option to reboot later. UI will be shown for this even if silent is used.-auto Automatically begins the installation, this option is not needed when -silent is used. Setup will skip the welcome page and start installing files.
  • Note: -forcereboot and -promptreboot cannot both be set, an error will be displayed. -silent and -auto should not be used together, no error will prompt and -silent will take precedence.
• Simple UI. No unnecessary steps or screens. Windows 7 taskbar progress.
• One installer, no need to download a separate installer to get the SDK.

Same thing goes for the uninstaller:

• Simplified uninstall with option to remove saved settings and sdk projects
• Supports -silent and -clean (removes saved settings).

For existing installations, an update to Seven Update has been released that will uninstall the old version, and install the new version for you.

The update brings minor bug fixes and unifies the installation directory. The SDK now shares the same libraries.

CCleaner, WinRAR, MPC-HC updates have been disabled for the time being. They will be re-enabled at a later date.

Recently I pushed an update for Media Center Classic Home Cinema. The program folder size is about 36mb uncompressed. Using simple zip compression, the folder size is about 5.5mb, that’s a big difference.

While I have not finalized the exact steps I do have a general outline. I plan on using xdelta 3.0z (or latest) to do patching, xdelta is the only windows solution that is open source and that supports 64 bit and files over 2gb. BSDiff can only handle a filesize of about 120mb. xdelta is actively developed and can be found here. I will use gzip archives to store each program revision in the SDK. It’s going to be important to keep old versions, I recommended 3 versions back. Don’t worry though, The SDK will generate a new full 7u package with each update you create. So if a user is using an old version that hasn’t updated in a while and a patch for it is not maintained, it will just download the full package. I am also toying with the idea of creating incremental and differential 7u packages, like 1.0-1.4.7u, so it doesn’t need to download 4 patch files and apply each one, that could be an option for the publisher to decide because it would save updating time and 0verall bandwidth but would increase initial upload bandwidth and storage space needed.

Example: SevenUpdate_Full.7u, SevenUpdate_1.0-1.1.7u, SevenUpdate_1.1-1.2.7u

The publisher will add only the updated files to the new update that person is creating. The SDK will have the ability to detect changed files to help to the work for you. The SDK will copy those files and create a 7z archive. The SDK will then generate patch files for each file. Creating registry and shortcut actions should remain the same. When an update is published, the SDK will  gather the patch file gzip them into a file called 7u. The default file name will be the version# of the update.

The SUI format will include various enhancements, file version #’s, last modified date of each file, an unique update id, and an update dependence option. The dependence option will allow the publisher to specify required updates to be installed along with the new update, that is where the unique update id will be used. UpdateFile.Source property will be removed, as it will be no longer needed.

So with this new process update distribution should be easier, only 2 files will be needed to be uploaded to a web server, the sui and the 7u file. The SUI as usual will contain all update information for your program and help Seven Update determine which updates are needed. Most of these changes will affect SevenUpdate.Sdk and SevenUpdate.Base projects. This will also lead to a UI update for the SDK, Seven Update shouldn’t be affected.

This will be a major update since it is going to affect almost all aspects of it’s base functionality, right now I am still in the preplanning stages. 1.x will still be maintained and updated as needed until 2.0 reaches a final release. Once the new version is in a working state , I will start pushing updates to the dev channel and introduce the SDK dev channel. The new installer should be done by that point.

So if you want to help with development, please don’t hesitate I could use the help, so this get’s done at a faster pace.

Here is a preview of the new installer:

So you may have noticed new updates release today, they are very minor, in fact I was saving these changes for a bigger update, but I figured I wouldn’t have one ready for a while so I release them. I added a privacy statement to Seven Update, it can be found on the settings page and updated the about windows to give it a cleaner look.

I have added help cursors to labels that have help tool-tips and improved some input validation. I also added a sort of hidden feature which I found myself needing when creating updates. When I needed to add files that I wanted it to have %InstallDir%\myfile.ext instead of the real filepath, I used to just copy the files over to that path to save myself editing each install directory. This feature will be useful if you have your files in another location than your install directory, such as your VS project bin folder. So to force %InstallDir% to be used when adding files instead of the real file’s location, simply hold your shift key before pressing the “add file(s)”. “add folder”, or “browse” button. Once you click it and are presented the file dialog box you release the shift button.

Incase I just confused you here is an example

I got a file located %DESKTOP%\SevenUpdate.exe and it’s install location is %InstallDir%\SevenUpdate.exe. Now normally if I add that file, the default Install location used will be %DESKTOP%\SevenUpdate.exe, because that is where the file exists and the SDK assumes the files are in the correct installed place. However to save time and make it easier, you can hold the shift key and instead of %DESKTOP%\SevenUpdate.exe, it will be %InstallDir%\SevenUpdate.exe in the textbox. Of course you can still manually edit the location using the textbox if neccessary.

I am also still considering a better way to create and distribute updates and I don’t think doing a diff will make much a difference and just zipping everything up defeats one of Seven Update’s main goals. I do have another idea which I am going to borrow from Steam, Valve’s gaming platform. Steam uses GCF files which is basically a compressed archive that can be updated easily while only downloading the needed bits. Any files in the GCF that are outdated are downloaded and then copied to the GCF. I been trying to find some documentation on how it actually does it so I can implement a similar method. I assume it involves doing client side calculations and sending it to their servers, then the server sends the files needed (much like Windows Update). Seven Update doesn’t send anything to the server, the client downloads the list of all installed apps and does everything client side. This may have an impact if 50 or more apps are installed and updated through Seven Update.

I will keep finding ways to simplify the process and if you have any ideas, please let me know.

Seven Update

• Prompt to close any files/applications needing updated to avoid a system reboot.

Seven Update SDK

• Ability to simulate updating and test for issues with projects.
• Show warnings for directories and urls that cannot be found.
• Have a “Seven Update Package” option that uses a special 7zip archive with the files needed to be updated and the list of files, shortcuts, and registry actions to install. The downside is the download size will always be the same even if most files are already update to date. This would make it even easier to manage and release updates. I really would like your ideas and comments about making update releases easier.
• Determine updates by a registry value or file versions instead of SHA-2 values.

Changes

Seven Update

• Fixed crash when viewing the “Change Settings” page more than once during a single execution
• Fixed bug preventing custom added apps from being listed in the application list
• Fixed bug showing 64 bit only apps on 32-bit operating systems
• Fixed a bug that caused applications to be partially updating, causing the same update to be installed a few times to update all files.
• Fixed a bug preventing Seven Update from being updated for some versions.

Seven Update SDK

• Added better url validation and application location validation.
• Added 32-bit, 64-bit or hybrid (Same files for both 32bit and 64bit) application platforms.
• Fixed bug when changing the project from 32bit to 64 bit and visa versa causing either a crash or the updates for the project to disappear.
• Fixed various crashes when saving or exporting projects.

• Code optimizations
• Application Restart and Recovery support in Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Fixed update selection not being saved correctly in some cases
• Error logs have been combined into one location, specific for each user
• Fixed crash when trying to load files that do not exist.
• Fixed memory leak when navigating pages

The Dev Channel is intended for beta testers and developers. It may contain bugs and even crash. By using this channel, you agree not to hold Seven Software, it’s developers, or it’s partners responsible for any data loss or corruption.

A beta channel will be available in the future. Currently the only way to switch to the dev channel is to download and run the special installer. A command line switch will be available in the future to make it easy to switch channels without grabbing an installer.

Use the Dev Channel