Installation engine and package format for parallelizable, reliable installations
View Patent ↗In one embodiment, an application updater may cleanly update a computer application 112 without causing a fault or a reboot of either the system or the process. A processor 220 may execute a predecessor version 508 of a computer application 112 . The processor 220 may install a successor version 512 of the computer application 112 on a user account level. The processor 220 may execute the successor version 512 of the computer application 112.
1. A machine-implemented method, comprising:
executing a predecessor version of a computer application in a primary user account of a computer device;
installing a successor version of the computer application for the primary user account; and
executing the successor version of the computer application in the primary user account while a secondary user account of the computer device has the predecessor version.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
downloading a complete successor version using an updater module.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
executing the updater module invisibly to a user.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
placing the successor version in a clean successor data storage location.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
maintaining execution of the predecessor version while installation of the successor version occurs.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
executing a switch from the predecessor version to the successor version.
7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
maintaining a presentation of a user interface of the computer application during the switch.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
executing the predecessor version and the successor version simultaneously.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
uninstalling the predecessor version while executing the successor version.
10. A tangible machine-readable medium having a set of instructions detailing a method stored thereon that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform the method, the method comprising:
executing a predecessor version of a computer application referenced by a primary file name of a primary user account of a computer device;
downloading a complete successor version using an updater module disregarding the predecessor version;
installing the complete successor version of the computer application referenced by the primary file name in a clean successor data storage location.
11. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:
installing the complete successor version of the computer application on a machine level.
12. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises:
elevating a user status to an administrative privilege.
13. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:
installing the complete successor version of the computer application on a user account level.
14. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:
executing the updater module invisibly to a user.
15. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:
resetting the primary file name to be a hard link to an administrator successor version.
16. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises:
maintaining a presentation of a user interface during the switch.
17. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:
executing the predecessor version and the complete successor version simultaneously.
18. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:
scheduling the predecessor version for an uninstall operation during a system reboot.
19. An application updater, comprising:
a communications interface that downloads a complete successor version of a computer application;
a data storage that stores a predecessor version of the computer application in a predecessor data storage location and the complete successor version in a clean successor data storage location; and
a processor that executes the predecessor version and installs the complete successor version of the computer application in a primary user account while a secondary user account has the predecessor version.
20. The application updater of claim 19 , wherein the processor maintains execution of the predecessor version while installation of the complete successor version occurs.