Hi

I sure DJ will be here soon.

We are up to Version 2020.09.08.00  now 

EzAng

The ARC software only gets updated on the stable channel when there’s either significant bug fixes, new features/technologies that enhance user experience, or when third party technologies require updates. 

It’s generally a monthly suggested update and 3 month mandatory update. The mandatory updates are to ensure forward compatibility with third party technologies. Sadly, Synthiam isn’t solely responsible for the requirement of updates for feature compatibility. Because the ARC software combined technologies of hundreds of companies, we’re at the mercy of their updates. 

In short, it’s only mandatory for an expired update if something very incompatible happens that’s out of our control - albeit, we take the blunt of the force

it’s a bit of effort to maintain updates - but incredibly worth it when the new technologies are used

oh thats unfortunate that the updates end up being mandatory. I understand the need to keep them updated for compatability, but it isnt feasible to update software in a school every few months.
Are there any details for unattended installs of ARC at all? We normally roll out applications via Microsoft System Center, which I could deploy to happen overnight and try to update the package every quarter, but manually installing it in the lab during school term is just not going to happen easily

thanks for the reply

I’ll look into that for you. Stay tuned

Looks like "ARC Installer.exe" /quiet does an unattended install, and will perform a silent upgrade so this might be enough for me to deploy it to the classroom.

Is there a RSS feed or something that could notify of new releases?
I guess an email list or something simple would be enough but something I could automate to create a ticket in our helpdesk system would be great for our team to know when a new release is able to be deployed?

I was thinking of an auto update service but that would require admin privileges and be a mess in school environments. 

Perhaps an email is best? The software will notify of an update before the software expires. IF that feature hasn’t been disabled and there’s an internet connection. 

so maybe email is a good idea?

Yeah autoupdate would be fine, but as you say it would need local admin privileges which the students dont have.

The software prompting for an update again is fine, but the chances of that message getting from a student who probably just clicks messages away through the teacher back to the IT Department is slim unfortunately

Happy to sign up to a mailing list or similar if an email could come out when updates are available, maybe if it mentioned what was new, or fixed, any known issues or if a certain version has become expired
This would allow us to monitor the version control as well, as we don't normally install the updated software etc as it happens in a lab environment incase there are any issues. We could then know which versions become depreciated and make sure we update before then.

thanks

Okay - email it is. Every release includes release notes with a list of major changes/fixed/features. I’ll have that included in the email