Distributed or Centralized Executable?

[Lester Botello]

Hello you guys.

I have a Visual Basic 6 application on SQL Server 2000 which I'm about to
deploy to a new client. Someone has suggested to install the application in
every workstation using the following scenario:

a) Run the setup program on every workstation so the required components and
libraries can be installed correctly on them.
b) Delete the program executable which the setup program creates on the
local workstation.
c) Place a shortcut on the user's desktop which points to the actual
executable on a remote server. This same executable will be accesed for
every single user of the application.

The idea behind this setup fashion is simplify updates to the program. When
a change to the application is made, updating it will be as simple as
compiling the new executable and replace the shared executable on the remote
server which is accesed for all users. Users pointing the new EXE file will
be updated automatically.

So the question is: Is it recommended to use this setup schema to deploy an
application? If not, what are the risks we're running into centralizing the
program executable?

Thanks in advance,
LB.

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi,

You may want to look at my post "Uninstalling Applications across
enterprise", it goes into detail of applications whose image resides on
a server.