Are you already using the Updater Block? Do you find it useful? If not, are you likely to incorporate it into your future Windows Forms applications? Do you know of issues or problems with the Block that are not mentioned in this article? Will smart clients ever become as popular in the future as thin clients are currently? Let us know in the .NET discussion forum.
Keep your Apps Fresh with the MS Updater Application Block
Transform your .NET Windows Forms client applications into self-updating "smart clients" with Microsoft's Updater Application Block.
by Adam Young
September 9, 2004
ince the late '90s there has been a significant move away from desktop applications in favor of Web-based thin clients. Part of the reason was the Internet boom; Web technologies suddenly became popular, and architects discovered that the internet model allowed them to cut deployment costs. The lure of centralized management and applications accessible from any Internet-connected computer proved overwhelming. The majority of new projects were planned as Web applications, and many existing thick client applications were converted to Web technologies, with varying degrees of success. The terms "fat" client and "bloatware" were coined to describe desktop apps, not only to distinguish them from thin clients, but also to draw attention to their unwieldy nature; desktop apps often consist of a lot of files, hog precious disk space, and require a large amount of local processing power and resources to run.
The general consensus for the last few years has been that desktop apps just can't be deployed quickly and easily—they require developers to create a setup program and test the application on a variety of platforms. Worse, deployment problems don't stop with the initial installation; any updates to the application require yet another installation process. Users don't take kindly to having to reinstall applications repeatedly to patch bugs, so developers had to make sure that applications were tested thoroughly before deployment, further raising costs. This is in stark contrast to thin clients—users just point their browser at your site, and they have the latest version of your code.
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ince the late '90s there has been a significant move away from desktop applications in favor of Web-based thin clients. Part of the reason was the Internet boom; Web technologies suddenly became popular, and architects discovered that the internet model allowed them to cut deployment costs. The lure of centralized management and applications accessible from any Internet-connected computer proved overwhelming. The majority of new projects were planned as Web applications, and many existing thick client applications were converted to Web technologies, with varying degrees of success. The terms "fat" client and "bloatware" were coined to describe desktop apps, not only to distinguish them from thin clients, but also to draw attention to their unwieldy nature; desktop apps often consist of a lot of files, hog precious disk space, and require a large amount of local processing power and resources to run.
