Returning ClickOnce version doesn't work when launching application on startup from the Windows Registry

Question

I'm using the following code with System.Deployment to return the ClickOnce version of my .NET 3.5 C# application:

public string version
{
    get
    {
        System.Reflection.Assembly _assemblyInfo = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
        string ourVersion = string.Empty;

        if (System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed)
        {
            ourVersion = System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.CurrentVersion.ToString();
        }
        else
        {
            if (_assemblyInfo != null)
            {
                ourVersion = _assemblyInfo.GetName().Version.ToString();
            }
        }
        return ourVersion;
    }
}

If I launch the application normally (from the Start menu, for example), this value is always returned correctly. However, if I start the application automatically with Windows using a registry key, the application returns the default hardcoded value of 1.0.0.0.

If I close the automatically-started application and re-open it manually, it then returns the correct ClickOnce version number again.

Any ideas on why this might be? Here is the code I'm using to set the registry key:

string keyName = "MyApp";
string assemblyLocation = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
Util.SetAutoStart(keyName, assemblyLocation);

And

public class Util
{
    private const string RUN_LOCATION = @"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run";

    /// <summary>
    /// Sets the autostart value for the assembly.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="keyName">Registry Key Name</param>
    /// <param name="assemblyLocation">Assembly location (e.g. Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location)</param>
    public static void SetAutoStart(string keyName, string assemblyLocation)
    {
        RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey(RUN_LOCATION);
        key.SetValue(keyName, assemblyLocation);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns whether auto start is enabled.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="keyName">Registry Key Name</param>
    /// <param name="assemblyLocation">Assembly location (e.g. Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location)</param>
    public static bool IsAutoStartEnabled(string keyName, string assemblyLocation)
    {
        RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(RUN_LOCATION);
        if (key == null)
            return false;

        string value = (string)key.GetValue(keyName);
        if (value == null)
            return false;

        return (value == assemblyLocation);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Unsets the autostart value for the assembly.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="keyName">Registry Key Name</param>
    public static void UnSetAutoStart(string keyName)
    {
        RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey(RUN_LOCATION);
        key.DeleteValue(keyName);
    }
}

Answer 1

I've isolated the problem. I won't pretend to understand exactly how ClickOnce works, but basically, if you launch the executable file directly it won't run in "ClickOnce mode". This means it won't check for updates and won't get the correct version number (since it isn't actually network deployed).

The best solution I've found so far is to point to the ClickOnce .appref-ms file rather than the .exe file. This file is like a shortcut of sorts, and is in the start menu.

Here's the code I'm using to get the location of my app's .appref-ms file:

string allProgramsPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Programs);
string shortcutPath = Path.Combine(allProgramsPath, keyName);
shortcutPath = Path.Combine(shortcutPath, keyName) + ".appref-ms";

And then I combine that with my previous code to set that location in the registry.