Why Not Run App (VB) From Network Drive?

[Chrgr]

Has anybody had success, or experienced problems, running an application from a network drive? I would like to deploy my VB 6.0 application this way if possible. I believe the VB run-time files would have to be installed on each PC. But after that, it would be a tremendous advantage to be able to fix/enhance/update the application by updating a single file on the network as opposed to updating hundreds of PCs. Any thoughts, insights, or experience with doing this would be appreciated.

 

[john0532]

I currently support an app that runs on the client but is resident on a server. It's been in production for 3+ years. Much simpler than updating the hundreds of PCs when we got a new release.

 

[DanMc]

If this is your first experience with running apps from a server (on multiple clients) I don't recommend VB6 as the first app you network. It's a very complicated application.

Consider a service pack for VB6. What happens on a single PC when you install a service pack? It probably updates files under C:\Program Files\VB6, but it ALSO updates many many files under C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 and modifies many many registry entries. You need a way to capture and deploy these changes to all the computers. There are tools like WinInstall and AdminStudio to help with this, but there is a learning curve.

Unless you learn how to use repackaging tools (or disk cloning and re-clone your PC's whenever you patch an app on the network) the only practical advantage to storing the app on the server is saving client disk space.

 

[DanMc]

My fault. I misunderstood. I thought you wanted to run "VB6 the compiler" from the network.

If you're writing a simple app and running it from the network that should not be a problem. You can install the VB runtime files on each PC if you like. Or you can keep the DLL's up on the network in the same folder as the EXE. This will be a bit slower, and you'll need to be vigilant about keeping the latest DLL's up there.