Bit Torrent Sync (BT Sync) is great software which can be used for syncing files. I use it for backing up all my pictures/videos/music/files/mobile computers. Well, I did some testing and it looks like it can be used for installing and updating software also.
I tested it with my Windows 8 computer over to my Windows XP computer. I created an Excel xla add-in file and I also created an executable file. Both worked fine after syncing. The following procedure was used:
- Create folder for program you would like synced
- Create a syncing folder
- Copy read only secret
- right click on folder to sync in BT Sync “Show folder preferences” then copy read only secret
- Careful not to copy the wrong folder! You don’t want others getting your data!
- Give the secret to all those that you would like to have it.
BT Sync could probably work for:
- This seems like a good idea for open source projects which are free.
- It could probably also work for paid products which allow for updates for a year or more. For paid products a developer could just create a new folder after the latest cutoff period.
- This might be ideal for corporate wide add-ins also. The main problem with that is security of course. So I am not quite sure how that would be worked out.
The down side would be that for people which don’t want to install BT Sync you would need a back up updater/installer.
Let me know what you think! It would be interesting to hear other ideas on how this could work in the programming environment which haven’t already been thought of.