The typical use of the AstaBinaryPatcher is to efficiently update remotely deployed EXE's without have to stream down large files. There are 3rd Party tools that integrate with the AstaBinaryPatcher to provide a transparent autoupdate process for any application and allow the application to "check" for an update on a remote server, get a patch and update an application in place.



Although EXE's are normally used with the AstaBinaryPatcher to allow for remote EXE's to be made current, any file, including streamed database files could be used with this technology.

The AstaBinaryPatcher is part of the Zero Administration Initiative that is part of the which also includes ASTA's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Wireless Universe and an updated for the Palm.

ASTA is fully committed to thin client applications with zero administration. To this end, the ASTA AutoUpdate Process allows for remote clients, when logging onto an ASTA server to have a version check performed on the server and if a more recent version of the client application is available, that version can be streamed down to remote clients, replace the existing application and relaunch the application. This process is described with examples and screen shots in the AstaAutoUpdate Tutorial. This same technique is available on PDA devices also, where a updated Palm prc or WinCE EXE is made available on ASTA SkyWire servers and then streamed down to the handheld device when a client is authenticated at the server. For low volume servers or over local lans, this works quite well but as user counts start to rise into the hundreds, it could be quite common for 100 or so users to hit a server at the same time, streaming down a 1MB + EXE to remote clients. Quite a distraction for an ASTA server designed to serve up database queries!