Auto Updates

From notepad-plus

Notepad++ comes with a helper program, gup.exe, which checks whether there is an update for Notepad++ and performs the update.

You can launch it manually usung  ? -> Update Notepad++, or get it to fire when Notepad++ starts up by checking the Settings -> Preferences -> MISC -> Enable Notepad++ auto-updater checkbox.

Basically, it assumes that it can connect directly to the Internet. This assumption fails on machine that use a proxy. The following are instructions on how to configure a proxy connection for the Notepad++ update.

1. Start GUP telling it you are providing options:
   • Under a command prompt, which you may open by typing cmd.exe in the Start menu -> Run dialog, type :

     gup -options

     If the current directory is not the one gup.exe lives in, cd to that folder before launching gup. Using the full path will not work. With Windows Vista/7, you may need to open a command prompt as administrator, or settings won't be saved.

   • or you can create a GUP shortcut for passing -options parameter to GUP, then double click on the shortcut.
2. A popup dialog is shown. Set your proxy server and port. You can fill the proxy server field with
   • proxy.fully.qualified.domain.name
     http://proxy.fully.qualified.domain.name
   • or ip.value.of.proxy
     http://ip.value.of.proxy
3. then click OK.

If your proxy requires authentication, you can pass credentials using <user>:<password>@<proxy>, but beware your credentials will be stored in plain text in the GUP configuration file, also GUP uses basic authentication thereby credential are sent on the network using just a simple Base64 encoding, very easy to decode. Proxy settings can be set through ? -> Set Updater Proxy as well.

GUP is an open source project on Sourceforge and Tuxfamily.org.

When a new version of Notepad++ is made available, there is a short delay - 15 days - before updates from Notepad++.exe are enabled. This prevents critical bugs to propagate by giving time to spot them and quickly issue a corrective version. Thed delay affects both auto updates and the ? -> Update Notepad++ command.