Restarting the Application with the New Thin Client

After the installer process is complete, the newly installed thin client is started with the same command-line parameters or .atc (or .acutc) file passed to the original process. The thin client examines the .atc file type association in the registry to find the new thin client version. If the registry entries are properly set, when you open the .atc file from Windows Explorer, a desktop shortcut, or the Start menu, the updated version of thin client is automatically found.

The thin client also adds the --noautoupdate command-line option to acuthin, which prevents an infinite loop in the event an error causes the new thin client to detect that it needs another update. This could happen if, for instance, the automatic update was configured with an incorrect version of the installer that installs an older thin client than required.

You use the TC_INSTALLER_RUN_ASYNC configuration variable when you want to prevent the thin client from restarting after an automatic update, or when your installer file handles the automatic update process to completion. When you set this variable to "1" (on, true, yes), the thin client starts the installer process asynchronously and then exits immediately. It does not wait for the automatic update process to complete and does not restart using the same command-line parameters or .atc file. The default value is "0" (off, false, no).

You may also use TC_INTALLER_RUN_ASYNC to install the new thin client in the same directory as the currently running thin client. When this variable is set to "1", the system allows the executable and DLLs to be overwritten as soon as the current thin client exits, which happens immediately after the thin client starts the installer.

This variable is useful if you want to run an .exe, .html, .doc, .pdf, .cmd, or other file instead of an .msi installer. For example, you could set TC_INSTALLER_SERVER_FILE to "AutoUpdate.html" and TC_INSTALLER_RUN_ASYNC to "1". The thin client downloads AutoUpdate.html and runs it. The original thin client process would exit and leave Internet Explorer (or the default Web browser or application associated with .html) displaying the contents of AutoUpdate.html. AutoUpdate.html could include scripting code, redirect the Web browser to a Web site, or simply display an informational message to the user.