APPNOTE: Known issues running PmUpdate, the web update utility.

Last reviewed: March 22, 2010
Article ID: 090311sab

The information in this article applies to:

Pronto for Windows all versions from 5.50 onwards.

Target Audience.

This article is aimed at:

All Users of Pronto for Windows.

Summary.

Pronto for Windows Release 5.50 and later includes PmUpdate, a utility that updates a users Pronto installation to the latest release by downloading updated components from the Outram Research web site.
This application note details known problems that have been encountered by users running this utility and suggests solutions.

Known Issues.

1) Installation not valid.

Applies to:
This occurs ONLY on a computer where the first version of Pronto installed was 5.53 and it was installed from the CD.
Symptom:
PmUpdate produces the message: "Installation of Pronto for Windows does not appear to be valid"
Cause:
PmUpdate checks for the presence of several files to be certain that it can safely upgrade a users Pronto installation. One of the files expected is PRONTO.HLP. At Pronto release 5.53 the PRONTO.HLP file was removed from the setup as the online help was changed to the new "compiled HTML" format PRONTO.CHM.
Due to an oversight on my part I did not revise PmUpdate and it still looks for PRONTO.HLP which is not present.
Solution:
Copy the file PMSCREEN.HLP and rename it to PRONTO.HLP then re-run PmUpdate.

2) Unable to download the update list.

Symptom:
PmUpdate produces the message: "the file pmupdate.txt was not found"
Cause:
PmUpdate is unable to download the file containing the list of latest versions from the Outram research web site.
Solution:
The first step to fixing this problem is to check what is returned as a "HTTP result code" in the progress window when PmUpdate tries to get "pmupdate.txt".
The status window should look something like this:
image of pmupdate window showing the result code

image of pmupdate window showing the result code

The image shows a successful retrieval, for a download failure the relevant text in the status window would be this:

Getting revisions list ===============================
opening http://www.outramresearch.co.uk/updates/pmupdate.txt result code 407 <----HTTP result code.

The meanings of all possible result codes are here: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html
The most common failure I have seen is result code 407 explained here: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.4.8. This applies when a user is inside a company firewall with a proxy server that requires authentication. To resolve this problem enter the proxy authentication information using the "Configure Proxy..." button on PmUpdate (Your IT department should be able to provide you with the username and password used for authentication with your proxy server).

3) The requested operation requires elevation.

Symptom:
On Windows Vista, when launching PmUpdate using the HELP - CHECK FOR UPDATES menu item from within Pronto for Windows the message: "Failed to launch the utility <PmUpdate.exe> Error: <The requested operation requires elevation>" appears.
Cause:
PmUpdate requires write access to the Pronto application directory in order to update Pronto.exe and other utilities, on Windows Vista write access requires higher (elevated) access rights.
Solution:
Launch PmUpdate directly by browsing to the Pronto application directory, right clicking on PmUpdate and selecting Run-As Administrator.

4) Message "No updates are required" on installations that are known to be out of date.

Applies to:
This occurs ONLY on a computer where PmUpdate has not been run successfully after 19th March 2010.
Symptom:
When PmUpdate is run the update process appears to work correctly and the message "No updates are required. Your Installation is up to date." appears despite the installation being known to be out of date.
Cause:
On systems where Internet access is through a proxy server (or possibly a gateway or firewall) that caches page requests, the file PmUpdate.txt is being cached at the proxy and when requested by PmUpdate the cached (out of date) page is returned instead of the latest data.
Solution:
Using Internet Explorer attempt to download the update file manually by entering the address shown in the dialog image above on the second line in the status window.
Internet Explorer will present a Login dialog requesting a username and password, because the file resides within a protected area.
Click CANCEL on this dialog and a Not Authorised page will be shown.
This process will invalidate the file in the cache, allowing PmUpdate to function correctly next time it is run.

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