How Updates Work in the ABM Service Desktop App
The ABM Service desktop app keeps itself up to date. It looks for a new version regularly, downloads it in the background without interrupting you, and installs it either when you say so or by itself at the first moment no ABM Service window is open. Nothing ever installs over a window you are working in without asking.
How does the ABM Service desktop app get updates?
The ABM Service desktop app checks for a new version every ten minutes, and also whenever a window opens, whenever you sign in from the Start menu, and whenever you choose Check for Updates… on the File menu. A new version downloads in the background while you keep working.
What happens next depends on whether you have windows open:
- No ABM Service window open — the update installs by itself straight away. ABM Service restarts quietly with just its tray icon beside the clock, and a small window says ABM Service was updated.
- Windows open — a small window appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen offering the update, the tray icon gets a dot, and its menu gets Install update with the version number. If you ignore the offer, the update still installs by itself once you have closed every ABM Service window.
If you press an ABM Service button on the toolbar of ABM (Advanced Business Manager) when no ABM Service window is open, a waiting update installs first and then the screen you asked for opens, so the press is not lost.
Nobody can put off an update for good: the offer comes back about once an hour, and the automatic install happens at the first quiet moment.
What does the ABM Service update window in the corner of the screen mean?
The small window in the bottom-right corner of the screen, titled ABM Service update, is the ABM Service desktop app telling you about a new version. It never takes the keyboard from the window you are typing in, and it stays on top until you answer it. The company it belongs to is named at its foot.
While the new version downloads, it says Downloading ABM Service with the version number, You are using your current version, and Nothing is interrupted; you will be asked when it is ready., with a progress bar.
When the download has finished, it says the new version is ready to install and explains that your open ABM Service windows have to close first and come back afterwards. It then offers three buttons:
- I have closed them — press this after closing your ABM Service windows yourself. The update then installs. If windows are still open, the message changes to say how many, and asks you to close them and press again.
- Close my windows — closes your ABM Service windows for you, installs the update, and opens the same windows again on the same screens.
- In an hour — puts the offer away. It comes back about an hour after it was last put in front of you, not an hour after you pressed In an hour, so an offer you left on screen for a while can come back sooner. It does not come back if the update has installed by itself before then. Closing the update window with its own close button does the same.
Warning: Close my windows does not stop for unsaved changes. Save your work before pressing it.
Will the ABM Service update close my work?
No update closes an ABM Service desktop app window without you asking. While any window is open, the update only offers itself. It installs by itself only when every ABM Service window on the computer is closed, when nothing can be interrupted.
When you press Close my windows in the update window, or choose Install update from the tray icon's menu, your windows close and reopen afterwards on the screens they showed. What you had typed but not saved in them is not kept, so save first.
If two companies are open, they share one installation of the desktop app, so one update covers both. Nothing installs by itself while either company has a window open. Pressing Close my windows in one company's update window closes the other company's windows as well, and those do not reopen; open that company again afterwards. When the update installs by itself with no windows open, only one company comes back with its tray icon; open the other from ABM or the Start menu when you need it. Each company shows its own update window, stacked one above the other in the corner.
What does the message "ABM Service was updated" mean?
ABM Service was updated is a small window in the bottom-right corner of the screen that appears after the ABM Service desktop app has installed a new version. It says You are now running the new version, and which version it was up from, with the company's name at its foot.
It usually appears after an update installed itself while no windows were open, so it is the only sign that anything happened. It does not take the keyboard from whatever you are doing. Press OK to close it; once you have clicked on it, Enter or Escape close it too.
Nothing else needs doing: your next ABM Service window opens on the new version. The new version number also shows beside the screen name in each window's title bar.
What happens with updates when I sign in from the Start menu?
When you open ABM Service Desktop from the Start menu, the ABM Service desktop app checks for a new version before it asks who you are. The small starting window may say Checking for updates…, then Downloading the latest ABM Service…, then Installing ABM Service with the version number, and the sign-in window opens on the new version.
It waits only a few seconds for an answer, and about half a minute for a download. If that is not enough, the sign-in window opens anyway and the update is picked up shortly afterwards.
If ABM Service is already open with windows, the update cannot install from the sign-in window. It shows the update window instead, saying ABM Service is open in another window. Close that window and press I have closed them, or press Close my windows to let it close them; in this case the closed windows do not come back afterwards.
How do I check for an update myself in the desktop app?
Choose Check for Updates… from the File menu at the left of any ABM Service desktop app window's title bar. The desktop app asks straight away, without waiting for its next regular check.
- If a newer version is available, the update window appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen, first showing the download and then offering the update.
- If you already have the newest version, a message titled Check for Updates says ABM Service is up to date. with the version you are running.
The up-to-date message also appears when the desktop app could not reach the update server at all, because a failed check is treated as nothing new. If a colleague is already on a newer version and yours still says up to date, tell your IT support: the computer may not be able to reach the update address.
To see which version you have without checking, look at the number beside the screen name in the title bar, or choose About from the File menu.
Why couldn't the ABM Service update install?
Occasionally the ABM Service desktop app cannot install an update when asked, and says why in a message. None of these lose the update: it is installed later by itself.
- ABM Service is open in another signed-in Windows session on this computer, so the update cannot install yet. — somebody else signed in to the same computer, for example on a shared server, has ABM Service windows open. It installs once they have closed them.
- Another ABM Service window did not close, so the update was not installed. Try again in a moment.
- The update could not be installed now. It will be applied the next time ABM Service starts.
- A message saying ABM Service could not confirm that nothing else is running from this install — it waits rather than risk closing something, and installs the next time ABM Service starts.