Desktop App Update Manager

We distribute a desktop application to 12,000 enterprise users across four operating systems. Our old update mechanism was a manual email telling people to download the new installer — and roughly 40% of our user base was always running a version that was out of date, out of compliance, or both. Support costs were enormous because we could never reproduce issues on the version the client was actually running. oDesk built an auto-update manager modelled on the App Store pattern: users see available updates, release notes, and a one-click update flow. Automatic updates can be enforced by IT policy. Outdated installations dropped to under 6% within the first month.

Technologies: Electron, Node.js, AWS S3, Squirrel, macOS/Windows packaging