Below is the output of my log messages upon the failure that this fixes. Hopefully this will help others with this problem find this solution through search engines:

UPDATE FAILED with the following error message:
System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format.
at Microsoft.Samples.AppUpdater.AppDownloader.Download()
at Microsoft.Samples.AppUpdater.AppDownloader.RunThread()

I did however run into a few problems. The zip file extraction would throw an exception saying that the “file was not found”. I thought it was the spaces in the filename that were playing tricks, but it turns out that the shell32 method relies (behind the scenes) on the presence of “unzip.exe” to do the extraction and for whatever reason that utility is not available on a few systems here.

So instead of bundling unzip.exe with the application, I simply added a reference to an open source zip lib (http://www.codeplex.com/DotNetZip) and extracted the files in the archive by replacing the Shell32 lines in CopyDirectory by the following:
using (Ionic.Utils.Zip.ZipFile zip = Ionic.Utils.Zip.ZipFile.Read(newPath))
{
foreach (Ionic.Utils.Zip.ZipEntry e in zip)
{
e.Extract(filePath);
}
}

Hopefully this will help someone else with a similar situation.

I was wondering why your 1.0.0.0 folder contained a folder named “app” after the update and was gonna suggest that you look into this

I’m glad it works for you!!

it was app.zip which created this issue for me. I have created a zip of a folder named “app” and files inside it, rather than zipping all files togather directly “app.zip”

Your Solution Rocks!!!!

A Trillion Thank to You.

Here is my “UpdateVersion.xml”

2.0.0.0
http://www.myapplication/2.0.0.0/app.zip

Before update
1.0.0.0 folder contains, exe and dlls for my application

After update
1.0.0.0 folder contains app\ contents downloaded from Server
app\
app\myapplication.exe
app\mydll.dll

1.0.0.0_1 contains
old files (myapplication.exe , mydll.dll)
app\
app\myapplication.exe
app\mydll.dll

“UpdateFile” function is NOT getting called!!!

Hope this can give u idea to find where i m wrong

sorry to hear you have problems. Have you tried debugging the “UpdateFile” function? This might help finding out what’s going wrong in your case. Also, can you post your UpdateVersion.xml file? What files are copied to the 1.0.0.0 folder? What’s in the folder 1.0.0.0_1?

I have made modifications as specified in this article..
Still having problem to start newer version after updating is completed.

1) I have committed changes suggested in “WebFileLoader.cs”,
2) upload a zip file of newer version of my application in 2.0.0.0 folder on web server.
3) And change in UpdateVersion.xml

As a result , i got success to check and download newer version from Apache web server,

But it “fails to Start newer version”. I can see a folder created as “1.0.0.0_1″ and app/ contents are downloaded to 1.0.0.0\ in my target machine. Actually it should download files in folder 2.0.0.0. which is not happening in my case..

Please suggest where i am wrong!!!