We have an internal desktop application which we have deployed to a network share. In that directory are subdirectories for each version, ie, z:\Apps\ApplicationX\1.0 z:\Apps\ApplicationX\2.0 z:\Apps\ApplicationX\2.1
I would like to put a shortcut on the user desktops which point to the newest version of the application. My current solution is to put the current version into a directory called "z:\Apps\ApplicationX\Current", and put a shortcut on their desktop to the exe there.
The problem is that when they are running the application, I can't update the application because the file is locked.
I tried changing the shortcut to point to a batch file which copies the file locally and then runs it from there, but we're all on Windows 7, and UAC is causing issues copying the file to the C: drive where I would expect it to be installed.
I suppose I could copy the executable to the users home drive and run it from there, but I don't like the idea of having an executable in the users home drive. It also means that there are multiple copies of the application on the network, which I'm not a fan of.
I also thought that I might be able to have a shortcut to a shortcut and I would just update the shortcut, but that doesn't work either.
My current solution is to have a batch file which has the start command in it pointing to the current version, and a shortcut to that batch file.
Does anyone else have possible solutions?