I wrote a small program that will automatically check the current Carbonite version listed on the website and let you know if you need to update. Hopefully this will help with the complaints about there not being an auto updater yet. Idea being that this will catch a new version BEFORE you log in so you can download and install then go play and not have your play interrupted.

I've emailed Faatal the .zip file and I'm sure as soon as he checks everything over he will post it for your downloading pleasure and post here to let you know it's up and where to get it. ;)

Here's what you can expect.

The zip file contains three files, two icons and the program itself. Unzip it to C:\Carbonite Version Checker (or anywhere else you'd like to put it but you will need to know where it is so you can make a shortcut in a minute)

After you unzip you should make a shortcut to the program and place it in your StartUp folder so it runs when you start your PC.

The first time the program runs it will put an icon in your system tray then ask you for your current Carbonite version number.

As you can see I've entered 1.731, the current version as of writing this post. Enter your current version number and hit OK. Hitting Cancel here will exit the program completely.

That number is stored in the registry and then it checks that number against the current version listed on the Carbonite home page. If you are up to date you will not see any messages and the program will automatically check for a new version once an hour after that.

Each time the program starts up it will go look for a new version automatically. If it finds one you will see this message.

Hit OK and the program will store the new version number, replacing the old one in the registry and go back to waiting an hour to check again. You will only see the new version message once so it's up to you to go download the new version.

If you right click on the C icon in the system tray you will see this menu.

Set Current Version - allows you to manually change the version number that is stored in the registry. You shouldn't need to use it but if you do it's there. You will see the same dialog box asking you for the number as in the first screen shot.

About - Gives you a little info about who created this program and includes the legal notices for me and Carbonite

Check Version Now - allows you to manually run a quick check to see if you are up to date. When doing a manual check you will get a message telling you if a new version is available or if you are current. That way you know the program actually did something when you told it to.

Goto Carbonite Home Page - will open the Carbonite home page in your default browser. Handy if you want to update.

Exit Carbonite Version Checker - exits the program - you can also Ctrl+click the icon to exit
 

That's it. It's a really simple program and for the most part requires you to do nothing. I know it's not an auto updater but it should help. Enjoy!

 Nice work dude! Looks great. Only thing I would say... I'm very picky about what is running in the background on my comp and I feel like it would make more sense to have the version checker just run when starting WoW, instead of once an hour. I feel like once an hour is a little too frequent. I don't know much about the process of making a program like this, but could you have a shortcut to the version checker, click it which checks for an update, then have it run WoW.exe from the user defined folder upon completion?

I could yeah but lets see if it even gets posted for download first. Faatal said he'd check it out in the next couple of days but for security reasons he wanted to compile if himself before making it public, which is totally understandable. He's only trying to protect you guys but I didn't write this with a standard programing language. I use Quick Macros Pro which has an intergrated language and is very flexible for scripting. The Pro version allows you to compile .exe files for distribution.

I emailed Faatal the source code but I don't know if he's going to be able to verify it or not and if he's not comfortable making it public then I don't know that I would want to give it to anyone else to use. If it does not get an "official" blessing then I wouldn't want it out there for someone to possibly accuse me of anything. You and I joined the forum here about the same time Ryan and I know I've already seen two different people mention Carbonite and keylogging in the same sentence even though we both know it's not even possible. I just don't need that aggravation.

I'm just hoping he's got access to sandbox software so he can verify that it does exactly what I say it does. Not that it took me that long to write but I'd hate to see it go to waste.

Sabart:

I know I've already seen two different people mention Carbonite and keylogging in the same sentence even though we both know it's not even possible.

Oh yeaaa, I didn't even think about how this could give people another reason to make keylogging claims...

RyanYo:

Nice work dude! Looks great. Only thing I would say... I'm very picky about what is running in the background on my comp and I feel like it would make more sense to have the version checker just run when starting WoW, instead of once an hour.

That is how we were planning on making an auto updater work. You run it, it checks for update and then runs WoW.

The actual overhead for a small program sitting there doing nothing for an hour is probably close to nil, but is would use a small amount of memory.

Sabart:

I could yeah but lets see if it even gets posted for download first. Faatal said he'd check it out in the next couple of days but for security reasons he wanted to compile if himself before making it public, which is totally understandable. He's only trying to protect you guys but I didn't write this with a standard programing language. I use Quick Macros Pro which has an intergrated language and is very flexible for scripting. The Pro version allows you to compile .exe files for distribution.

I downloaded a trial of Quick Macros and it is able to create a .exe from a script. I'm at the 90% comfort level with the exe file Sabart sent me. I did have some trouble running the script, since the formatting changed in the email he sent. Sabart, if you could zip the actual script source file and send it, that should avoid the formatting problem. I think it is just some indenting problems and will get it to work in any case.

 if you need any help let me know, i can write a script that checks version + other things if you need as well as launch wow after or before. one that would be 100% safe for everyone to use... if you start including EXE files with your addon you might get alot of resistance from teh community

Zipped and sent.

VirteX what would you use the .Net framework? 

RyanYo:

 Nice work dude! Looks great. Only thing I would say... I'm very picky about what is running in the background on my comp and I feel like it would make more sense to have the version checker just run when starting WoW, instead of once an hour. I feel like once an hour is a little too frequent. I don't know much about the process of making a program like this, but could you have a shortcut to the version checker, click it which checks for an update, then have it run WoW.exe from the user defined folder upon completion?

Faatal was getting some errors trying to run what I sent him because I wasn't using the latest version of the compiler so I've upgraded to the new version and did a rewrite to set it up like you suggested Ryan, it just made more sense to have it run that way. Thanks for the suggestions and you're right it was pointless to have it running constantly checking once an hour.

So now you will run the checker, if there is an update available you get an option to open the Carbonite login page in your browser so you can install it, start WoW and exit the program without upgrading or just exit the program. If you're up to date you get an option to start WoW and exit the program or just exit without starting WoW.

It won't stop you from getting the "Newer version available" message IG if you're already logged in and someone else logs in with a new version but you should never see Carbonite lock it self out if that happens anyway.
 

Sorry for my absence on this issue, i would most likely be using an hta file, if you want i can make a short demo. hta mostly relies on vbscript at the system level so almost anything can be done with it and yet if people wanna look at the code cause they are paranoid it can be done as well. i'm not so much paranoid usually altho i can rip an exe apart and tell you half what it does just a thought. there are a few other options as well, FYI i'm usually in wow not on forums lol so if i don't respon it's cause i forget to come back here lol, or i'm at work one of the two. but i'll keep updated here, and i need to renew my carbonite subscription in the next few days as well

RyanYo:

I also just thought (and again, I don't know much about how all this works) it might be a nice feature to have some sort of a warning or countdown for the user of the checker that tells them how long until their installed version expires and locks them out. That way, they can see how long they have until they absolutely HAVE to update their copy.

1.74 will give an expiration warning with # days left each time you login when you have less than 4 days remaining.