InstallMate Software Updater

David Adams - 2019-09-11 11:02 (updated 2023-11-24 10:37)

TwuX is a stand-alone software update tool designed to be used in conjunction with our own installers such as InstallMate 9, but it can also be used with third-party installers and with any regular application, or even stand-alone. The functionality of TwuX.exe is equivalent to that of the Tarma Web Update DLL version, but requires no custom programming.

InstallMate Software Updater 4.9 and later

InstallMate Software Updater 4.8 and earlier

Terms of use

InstallMate Software Updater ["this program"] is copyright © 1990-2023 Tarma Software Research Ltd.

You may use this program for personal, business, non-profit, and for-profit purposes, provided that your usage complies with all of the following conditions:

1. This program is only used to add software update functionality to a product that you or your organization are legally entitled to distribute.
2. You do not charge a fee for the updater functionality per se (you are free to charge a fee for your overall product).
3. You do not misrepresent the origins and authorship of this program.
4. Tarma Software Research Ltd will not be held liable for errors or omissions in this program.

Other uses of this program require the express written permission from Tarma Software Research Ltd.

No technical support is available for this free tool.

Download (Windows XP and later)

The download package contains two versions of the TwuX.exe tool:

• twux32.exe is the 32-bit Unicode version (can also be used on 64-bit platforms);
• twux64.exe is the 64-bit Unicode version (can only be used on 64-bit platforms).

You can use the 32-bit version on all Windows platforms; the 64-bit version will only run on x64 editions of Windows (not on IA64; you'll need the 32-bit version for that).

• Download TwuX.exe - version 5.21.7264.8729, 24 November 2023
• Download TwuX.exe Debug edition - version 5.21.7264.8729, 24 November 2023

System requirements: Runs on all Windows XP and later versions: XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, 11, and their Server editions 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019, and 2022.

Download (pre-Windows XP)

The last TwuX release with separate ANSI and Unicode versions was 4.8.0.5773, released on 27 October 2015.

Note: This version is no longer maintained and should only be used if you need to deploy on Windows platforms earlier than Windows XP.

The archived download package contains two versions of the TwuX.exe tool:

• twuxA.exe is the ANSI version for use on Windows 95, 98, Me;
• twuxW.exe is the Unicode version for use on Windows NT4, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, and their Server editions.

We recommend using the twuxW.exe version, unless you deploy your product also on Windows 9x.

• Download TwuX.exe - version 4.8.0.5773, 27 October 2015
• Download TwuX.exe Debug edition - version 4.8.0.5773, 27 October 2015

System requirements: Runs on all Windows 9x and later versions, including NT4, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, and their Server editions. Requires Internet Explorer 4 or later to be installed on the system.

What TwuX does

TwuX performs the following actions:

1. It downloads a package information file from a given URL.
2. Using the information from the file, it checks if the software product described by the file is present on the computer and if so, which version is currently installed.
3. If the product is not currently installed or if a newer version is available, TwuX then offers to download and install the new version.
4. Optionally, TwuX will close the main program before the update is installed and restart it after the installation is complete.

What you need to prepare

To use TwuX for your own products, you need to prepare the following:

1. An installer for your product (created with InstallMate or another installer builder); and
2. A package information file for the installer. This can be done automatically with InstallMate; see the Generate TWU update file option.
3. [Optional] A web page with the release notes for your product. You must enter the URL of this web page in the NewsURL field of the package information file. Alternatively, enter the URL in the Update URL field on the Product Info page in your InstallMate project; this will then be copied to the package information file.

Place the two files (installer plus package information file) together on your web server and make a note of the URL to the package information file. From then on, each time you release a new version of your product, you must update (1) and (2) and place the updated versions on your web server.

If you provide the URL for the release notes, then the Show Release notes button will be enabled in the Software Updater window (see screen shot above) and the user's web browser will be used to open that URL when the user clicks on that button.

How to use the update tool

You can use the update tool in two ways. In both cases, you must install TwuX.exe along with your own program, although not necessarily in the same folder.

1. By calling TwuX.exe with the correct command line options from your own program, possibly in response to a Check for updates command in that program; or
2. By installing a shortcut to TwuX.exe with the correct command line options in its Arguments field.

The command line options to use are discussed below, under Syntax and Examples.

Syntax

TwuX /?
TwuX [options] [@response.txt] URL

• The first form displays a syntax summary and exits.
• The second form downloads the package information file given by URL and performs the update according to options.

The package information file must follow the format used by TWU; see Package Information File for details. Note that this type of file can be automatically generated by InstallMate 7 and InstallMate 9 when you build an installer; see the documentation of the Generate TWU update file option.

# This is a comment line
 # But this is not (# appears in column 2)
"# Nor is this"
/nor#this
nor#this.txt
# But this is another comment

Exit codes

The exit code of the Twux.exe process gives an indication of the actions that were performed. However, in contrast to the usual exit code convention of "zero is success, nonzero is error", there are various nonzero exit codes that might indicate partial success.

• In programmatic use (for example, if you use CreateProcess(), ShellExecuteEx(), or some similar function to run TwuX.exe), you can retrieve the exit code through the GetExitCodeProcess() Win32 API call.
• On the command line or in a batch file the exit code can be tested through the %ERRORLEVEL% variable or by using an IF ERRORLEVEL statement, but see the caveat under Using the start /wait option below.

The following are some of the most common exit codes, but others might also occur. Consult the Windows error code list for more information.

Note: Error codes marked [InstallMate #xx] are the result of the corresponding InstallMate exit codes during the update process.

Using the start /wait option when running Twux.exe from the command line

If you run Twux.exe from a batch file or command line prompt, the default Windows behavior is to continue with the next command as soon as Twux.exe is started; it does not wait until Twux.exe has finished. As a result, the value of %ERRORLEVEL% does not necessarily reflect the Twux.exe exit code.

To remedy this, run Twux.exe as follows:

start /wait Twux.exe other_options...

This ensures that the command does not return until Twux.exe has exited.

Providing a dummy "title" field for the CMD.EXE start command

[Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/7/8 and later] If the Twux.exe program path in the start command contains spaces, you must quote it. However, the start command on Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/7/8 and later interprets the first quoted string as the program title and not as a program path. Therefore, you should include a dummy, quoted program title prior to the actual program path, thus:

start /wait "title" "c:\path\to\twux.exe" other_options...

This is only necessary if you quote c:\path\to\twux.exe for some reason.

Note that this tip only applies to the Cmd.exe command interpreter used on Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/7/8 and later systems; the Command.com command interpreter on Windows 9x systems does not support a title option and therefore requires no workaround.

Examples

Here are some usage examples.

TwuX /?

Displays a message box with the syntax summary and exits when the message box is closed.

TwuX /p:tin.exe http://www.tarma.com/download/tin9.txt

Downloads the file tin9.txt from Tarma's web server and updates your InstallMate 9 installation if given permission to do so. It also closes any running tin.exe processes before installing the update.

TwuX /q /p:tin.exe http://www.tarma.com/download/tin9.txt

Same as the previous, but performs the whole process without asking for confirmation.

TwuX /w:0x1a0344 http://www.tarma.com/download/tin9.txt

Same as the second example, except that TwuX will close the process associated with main window handle 0x1a0344 before installing the update and restart it afterwards. This form is typically used when TwuX is invoked from the application to which the update applies.