Progress Software Corporation recommends that you do not have both installation types of the same WebClient application on a single machine. If several users on the same machine use a WebClient application, a single Administrator installation uses less resources. You should uninstall any personal installations of an application if an Administrator installation exists.
However, circumstances might cause a machine to host a mix of Administrator and personal instances of WebClient applications. As a result, a user might attempt to use a personal instance of a particular application that they installed before the Administrator instance was installed. You might also have several different WebClient applications installed on the same machine. When there are multiple WebClient installations on a single machine, an Administrator installation generally has precedence over a personal installation.
The figures below show the logic process by which WebClient Initializer chooses which instances of the WebClient and the WebClient application to start. The first thing that the Initializer checks is if there is an Administrator instance of WebClient application available. If there is an Administrator instance of the WebClient application, it runs through the process shown in Figure Figure 1. If not, it runs through the process shown in Figure Figure 2 .
Note that, if there is no appropriate version of the WebClient available, the process does not upgrade an existing instance. Instead, it installs a completely new instance. This preserves the already installed instances for any other WebClient application that might need those particular versions.
Note: For Administrator installations, an "Administrator user" is any user who has sufficient privileges to perform installations or upgrades.
When an end user does not have sufficient privileges to update an Administrator instance of a WebClient application, the Initializer launches the last installed version of the application. However, the end user might see error messages when necessary upgrades cannot be made.
If the Initializer does not find an appropriate version of the WebClient application, the result depends on how the application deployer designs the deployment. If the deployer specified an upgrade path for the currently installed version, the Initializer launches the upgrade. If the deployer did not specify an upgrade path, then the Initializer installs a new personal instance of the WebClient application.
Figure 1. Launching an Administrator instance of a WebClient application
Note: The figure above assumes that you have already performed the initial installation of the WebClient application. The asterisk (*) indicates that the user might see errors when they cannot make necessary upgrades.
When the Initializer does not find an appropriate version of the WebClient application, it checks whether or not the deployer has specified an upgrade path for the version of the existing instance. If so, it upgrades the existing instance. Otherwise, it installs a new instance of the WebClient application. Administrators might need to uninstall superseded instances to free up disk space.
Note that even for a personal installation of a WebClient application, the Initializer first checks if there is an Administrator instance of WebClient from some other installation with an acceptable version. If it finds no appropriate Administrator instance of WebClient, it switches to looking for personal instances of WebClient.
Figure 2. Launching a personal instance of a WebClient application
