(Obviously the answer to this inquiry may vary case-by-case, but it would be helpful to know generally...)
Consider the following situation where an application "Calculator" has been boxed:
Enable Files Virtualization is selected
Enable Registry Virtualization is selected
Save changes of virtual files is selected
The Calculator application's update utility detects that an update is available and begins to download and install it.
Will an update be able to be applied to the boxed Calculator app using its internal update utility?
Or do Virtual Box users need to manually re-box an app anytime a new updated version is available?
Hi, you are right on this, answer may vary depending on application and the way it updates itself.
But we can discuss the common ways and investigate what could happen.
So, you are talking that update is being performed using some internal utility. Is that utility boxed with application's main file or no?
If no, is it boxed at all?
1. If this utility application is not boxed at all, then I assume everything should work. Since no virtualization is being performed inside this utility, it will download files for update, saves them somewhere, then replace the main application when needed/possible.
2. If this utility is boxed with main application, or main application runs this utility (and main application is packed with option "Share to child processes"), the EVB will be injected into this utility's process and redirect all file write operations, i.e. all files will be saved to folder you selected in Storage panel (since you use option described in your's #3), no real files will be overwritten!
So #1 is working one, #2 does not work complete.
What else could be improved? You can use my #2, but you need to exclude folder, where utility saves downloaded files from being virtualized, so utility will save these on the disk (rest file changes will be still virtualized). For this purpose you should know this folder, where it saves files, add this folder in EVB, and in folder properties select the virtualization method as "New files and folders become real".
