Application Updating on mass Workstations

[Khanh David To Tuan]

So I got this Program that has one executable and can be configured to be Server/Client. Everytime the application starts up, it checks with the server for updates. If there is a newer .exe, it downloads it into its program directory as .exe.new. Then it launches update.exe and closes itself. The update.exe deletes the old .exe and renames the .exe.new to .exe. Now the problem under vista is the file restrictions. I install the program as Administrator, but of course the users run it as user. They can't write into the program directory. Now how do I update? Update.exe already requests elevation. I can't go to every workstation and enter administrator credentials everytime there is an update. Because there are many. 1)Is it possible to set up a LOCAL SYSTEM service upon installation that will play the part of update.exe? It would just download the new files into like USERS/PUBLIC/TEMP and copy them from there. But of course that would also compromise security, as any malware could call that service and write malicious code. I could heighten security by implementing a parameter that is derived from the current time or something, so the service wont do anything without correct authentication. 2) I could set write/read access for anyone to program files/blabla But that would expose my application to manipulation by malware. 3) The only other option I know is restricting the installation of my application into USERS/PUBLIC. Which would suck as anything else

[Khanh David To Tuan]

Whatever, I havent been able to find anything in the last week and now I accidentaly find this article http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vista-security/VistaSessions.aspx[^].