troubleshooting/faq

[giscus[bot]]

troubleshooting/faq

Commonly asked questions about Velopack.

https://docs.velopack.io/troubleshooting/faq

[ConnectAutomatisering]

Hi,

I have the following challenge.
My update url is dynamic. So the application is running for multiple customers that have different update url's because its running locally.
What would be a good solution for that?

The created exe is hosted via a .net service, so the url is known there.

[caesay]

You are in control, as you pass in the desired update url to update manager via new UpdateManager(...source...). So just change what you pass in to the constructor?

[ConnectAutomatisering]

That i understand. The thing is what would be a good way to facilitate that?

For example: Before the .exe is downloaded from the api the URL/(some metadata) can be added to the .exe so the url is embedded in the installer after the installer is created. This is the way we got it to work first with Clickonce. The manifest that is generated on the fly so we could pass a dynamic url.

I was thinking about adding metadata to the installer file orso but i havent figured out a good solution and i would like to prevent to build a velopack version per customer.

[caesay]

It is not supported to modify a Velopack installer in any way after it's been created, as this would break the code signature or worse - corrupt the bundled application. You could ask your users for a customer-specific key on startup which then downloads your manifest.

[ConnectAutomatisering]

Thank you for you're responses. Very valid arguments. Im gonna think about it. We would like the installation to be as easy as possible. If i find a solution ill put in the comments.

[Ayazis]

Hi,

I've looked in the documentation and the available hooks / options. I haven't find the answer to these two questions:

• Is there an option to present the user with a EULA before continuing installation?
• Is there an option to present the user with an custom installation folder?

[caesay]

Both of these are possible on macos, but not yet on windows. See velopack/velopack#30 where this is discussed / being worked on for Windows.

[Ananym]

Was never able to use squirrel very well because constantly changing the actual executable path plays havoc with firewall and security exceptions etc etc. Does Velopack have a solution for that?

[caesay]

Velopack doesn't do that. Your application will stay at the same location through updates.

[Ananym]

Awesome - thanks!

[kalvinet]

Is it possible to configure a preinstall script on macOS to ensure .NET is installed before the application?

[caesay]

We do support bootstrapping dotnet on windows, however, it's currently not possible to bootstrap dotnet on mac, nor is it possible to provide a custom preinstall script.

Our current recommendation on linux and macos is to ship dotnet self contained, as framework-dependent installs tend to have far too many compatibility/runtime issues. I am not interested in adding support for it at this time either. The ecosystem/process for installing dotnet on linux/mac is just very messy, inconsistent, and regularly requires manual fixing on the command line before it's actually usable.

If you absolutely require this feature, I'd suggest you take/extract our portable zip output and create your own dmg/pkg with whatever custom scripts you need.

[kalvinet]

Thanks for the recommendations. My obfuscator has issues with self contained files, I will try to create a custom dmg/pkg.

[Levvy055]

How to add URI Protocols in Windows registry?
Want to have a hook to start app from browser URI like myapp://settings

[caesay]

We eventually plan to support it via velopack/velopack#29. Until that issue is complete, there is no built in support, so you'd need to DIY and install the registry keys yourself using the VelopackApp hooks.

[metscore]

Hi,

Forgive me if I missed this in the documentation, but is it possible to select to install for all users instead of per user?
I have a lab machine that multiple users are using (with their own Windows accounts) and it would be very convenient if the application could be installed for all, instead of having 10-ish parallel installations on the same Windows 11 machine (which the fact of our current ClickOnce installation)

[caesay]

This will be supported once velopack/velopack#606 is merged.

[lloydjatkinson]

If we need to register file extension associations, or write other registry values, how would we do that with Velopack? Should we do that in one of the hooks?

[caesay]

We eventually wish to support file associations and custom url protocols in Velopack natively (velopack/velopack#29) but until then, you can install and uninstall any registry entries needed via the after-install and before-uninstall hooks.