We’ve just changed our installer and auto-update system for SourceTree for Windows – up until now we’ve been using ClickOnce, which although quick and simple has caused problems for some people, such as those behind corporate proxy servers. As our user base has grown larger it’s becoming an increasing issue for people that needed to be resolved, hence the new installer.
If you download SourceTree for Windows now you will automatically get the new installer, which features many improvements over the previous setup:
- It’s one file. This is just simpler, particularly if you want to download once and install many times across a corporate network.
- You can install it when offline. One caveat: if you don’t have .Net 4.5 installed already (only applies to Windows 7) and you’re offline, the installer can’t retrieve it for you, so you’ll need to also download the Standalone .Net 4.5 Installer.
- The installer and auto-update system work behind all proxy servers
- You can pick the install location, unlike ClickOnce which gave you no choice.
- More robust. ClickOnce could sometimes tie itself in knots if something went wrong during the install or update, this system should avoid that.
If you already installed with the ClickOnce installer, you don’t have to grab the new installer yet (there will be one more ClickOnce bugfix update today), but we recommend doing so as soon as it’s convenient for you – you’ll be reminded at startup once the new installer updates become the only path. Installing the new version will happen alongside the ClickOnce install, and will retain all your bookmarks, per-repository settings, and any settings stored with Git itself, however your other settings in Tools > Options will be reset to the default. Once you are up and running with the new version you can simply uninstall the ClickOnce install, which will look something like the below in your Control Panel > Uninstall window:
Just uninstall the highlighted entry (the one with the ‘globe’ icon, rather than the SourceTree icon).
Switching over to a brand new installer / updater is not something we do lightly, however based on the feedback we’ve had from the community we think this is the best option for everyone for the future. We hope you continue to enjoy using SourceTree for Windows!