Do you enjoy rebooting your server? If not, have you ever wondered why MDaemon’s installer asks you to reboot after upgrading?
If MDaemon’s installer does ask you to reboot, please do reboot. You won’t be prompted for a reboot unless either MDaemon was unable to update all files OR another previous installer left files pending for a reboot. MDaemon won’t ask for a reboot unless it’s needed!
If you want to find out which files MDaemon’s installer was unable to update, take a look for the excellent WhyReboot tool. WhyReboot will attempt to show the pending file renames, deletes, and other operations scheduled to occur on the next reboot. If any of these are MDaemon related, do not start MDaemon until you reboot.
In many cases you can also avoid rebooting entirely if you shut down a few services before upgrading MDaemon. Not all of these apply to every installation, but you’ll want to look at some or all of the following items:
If you run under IIS, stop both the IIS website and Application Pool(s).
Stop the MDaemon service. Yes, the installer will try to do this for you, do it anyway.
Stop the MDaemon Remote Administration service. Yes, the installer will try to do this for you, do it anyway. Also, stop SecurityPlus’ tray tray icon, if running.
Depending on your configuration, you may also need to stop the Windows Management Instrumentation service, and Windows Event Log service, although these only need to be stopped if you use these features in MDaemon, if not, you can also disable the applicable features in MDaemon.
Finally, at the conclusion of the installation process, consider what services need to be started. MDaemon’s installer will start MDaemon and MDaemon Remote Administration, but any other services you shut down will need to be restarted manually.
Upgrading without a reboot by Dave Warren (everything-mdaemon.com) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.