Just a heads up on the automatic update process.
I am running a pretty vanilla Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 HTPC with hardly any non-Microsoft software installed except for MC and PowerDVD 10 OEM. I use a normal, non-administrator account. I have, as recommended, left MC to update automatically until I had an issue with built 19.0.74. I had changed the Update Channel from Stable to Latest in the last few weeks, so build 74 was downloaded and MC attempted to install it, unfortunately while I was away for a weekend.
When I arrived home MC wasn't running, and when I tried to start it I was informed that an attempt to update MC had failed (or similar message) and asked did I want to install build 74. I said yes, it installed, I needed to enter my administrator password for it to run, but it did complete. Unfortunately there had been no TV recordings for the last two days, so MC had been down the whole weekend. It did start recording a program that was due to be recording immediately, but when I tried to view it I first saw the message "Opening" and then the message "Installing required components" (or similar, I assume the new LAV filters), but that never completed (I left it quite a while), so I hit escape to get out of that, which took a while and looked like a lockup initially. I then tried to view other video but none would run. From memory they all showed the "Opening" message and then the message "Something went wrong with playback . . . ".
I downgraded to 19.0.67 for the evening and everything played fine. I just upgraded to 19.0.74 again and everything went fine. The required components installed when I tried to view the same video that didn't work previously. I just upgraded my main PC (using an administrator account) MC client to 19.0.74 and it also worked, although it also had problems initially playing the same videos as above. However closing MC, and waiting for the MC process to close (which took a few minutes), then restarting MC and all worked.
So, I guess the problem I have is that if a HTPC is running with a normal user account (which is recommended), and automatic update is turned on (which is recommended), MC gets broken as there is no-one there to enter the administrator password when the update occurs, and so unattended TV recordings are lost. I have for now Disabled Automatic Updates, even though that is not recommended.
Is this the expected behaviour? (I thought automatic updates had worked for previous versions of MC. In fact I'm sure they did. I think I was prompted to enter a password on waking the HTPC, or something like that.) Should the automatic update simply back out if an administrator password isn't entered before the timeout, and keep recording programs with the old version?
What is the best solution for a HTPC running a normal user account, as mine is? I would like automatic updates to occur, but they aren't much good if they require a password to be entered interactively. (No, I won't be turning off Windows UAC.)
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Topic: Install problem with components downloading (Read 832 times)