Updates and the default download path

[eddiet]

Hi Juan,

I'm not sure why this is, but updates fail for me with using the default settings. The default path for downloads is C:/Users/Eddie/AppData/Local/Temp

The Package download succeeds, but when PI is closed and update attempted, the update fails reporting "Can't find required components". Then PI appears to shut down, but is actually still running and needs to be killed from the task manager.

I suspect a permissions issue on the path, but I don't know why as PI is running as admin and the folder is owned by me... and the packages were successfuly downloaded to the path.

I'm wondering, when PI restarts, is it running with the same permissions as the instance that called it ?

There is a solution.. If I change the download path to somewhere else, it all works properly. I had this problem with the previous version as well and fixed it this way, but as I just erased the old PI settings for the latest version, it has just happened again and I thought I'd better let you know before I forget all about it...again...

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Eddie,

This is very strange. The Temp folder should always be writeable on all Windows versions, so this cannot be the problem. The "Can't find required components" error typically means that the updater1 application (PixInsightUpdater.exe) cannot run with administrative privileges. This is a common problem on Windows XP because it doesn't support UAC (User Account Control), and this is in fact one of the main reasons why Windows XP is no longer supported officially by PixInsight. However, this is the first time I see this error on Windows 7.

I'm wondering, when PI restarts, is it running with the same permissions as the instance that called it ?

When the PixInsight Core application restarts (actually, it is launched by the updater3 program when updater1 terminates), it runs with the same privileges of the user account from which it was initially executed. All PixInsight executables (PixInsight.exe, PixInsightUpdater.exe, updater2.exe and updater3.exe) have been digitally signed with our SSL VeriSign certificate. The updater1 program is executed requesting elevation with the "runas" Windows API. All this stuff is perfectly standard practice on Windows, so I don't know how it can fail in your case.

There is a solution.. If I change the download path to somewhere else, it all works properly.

This bit provides a hint on the cause of the problem. Can you verify if your Temp folder has execution permission disabled? At the beginning of the update process, PixInsight copies the updater executables to Temp and then runs the copies. This is because in this way we can update the updater programs (we couldn't overwrite a running executable image). If nothing can be executed on Temp on your machine, then we have found the cause of the problem.

Thank you for letting me know about these issues. This is the only way we can improve.