Question

Assuming i have an executable called mainprogram.exe and another called Update.exe. What I want to acheive is: when Update.exe is started, it replaces mainprogram.exe with, for example, C:\Program Files\MyProgram\mainprogram.exe. The point is to include the executable that needs to be replaced in Update.exe so it would be an all-in-one solution.

Also note that I can’t create Update.exe that will download the mainprogram.exe from internet, it has to be already included in Update.exe.

Answer 1

In building:

1. copy UPDATE.EXE to be embedded into the MAIN.EXE as a resource

At runtime (update time)

1. drop UPDATE.EXE from resource to the hard drive
2. start UPDATE.EXE with appropriate parameters (command line arguments, depending on the situation)
3. have UPDATE.EXE try to delete common file that MAIN.EXE will create and leave it opened
4. when MAIN.EXE exits, handle to the file will be released, allowing UPDATE.EXE to continue doing what it should – replace the MAIN.EXE with new version
5. start MAIN.EXE from UPDATE.EXE
6. (optional) delete UPDATE.EXE from MAIN.EXE, as you don’t need it for now.