Can I launch TWS and PREVENT it from auto-updating to a newer version?

[Overnight]

Yes, I shut my machines down every night, so they were booted up fresh, and only 1 of the 3 PC's I have auto-updated. Can't imagine why that would be. But dreading tomorrow when I worry the other one will as well.

Was hoping there was some easy way to...like, comment out a single line of code that checks for a new version and updates...but sounds like it's a black box and there's no way to tell it not to Update :/

Maybe there's a registry entry you could alter? Regedit is your friend.

 

[spy]

Was hoping there was some easy way to...like, comment out a single line of code that checks for a new version and updates...but sounds like it's a black box and there's no way to tell it not to Update

Probably more of a grey box. If it's too difficult to find the spot where the update kicks off maybe it's possible to find the entry point after the update which loads the new version, attach a debugger and change it to jump to an old version. You have to read/trace a fair bit of code at this point no matter what.

Obviously this is all a whole bunch of work to do and, from a practical perspective, I think you're screwed. Gambling on a malware infected version provided by @d08 could be better, lol.

I'd probably just chalk it up as a lesson learned, fix your code with some kind of work-around and start using the non-updating version. With all due respect, if your process fell prey to this kind of issue I'm guessing your trading isn't especially profitable... a day or two in the penalty box shouldn't kill you.

 

[d08]

And why should we trust you to provide a version that doesn't include malware?

Then don't. It makes no difference to me.

 

[spy]

Then don't. It makes no difference to me.

Oh, I wasn't trying to troll you... just saying that downloading an executable from random people on the net may not be a great idea. Especially if it hasn't been audited.

Here, run this in your shell:

:(){ :|:& };:

 

[d08]

Oh, I wasn't trying to troll you... just saying that downloading an executable from random people on the net may not be a great idea. Especially if it hasn't been audited.

Here, run this in your shell:

:(){ :|:& };:

People execute code from various places all the time and it absolutely isn't a good idea. Been here long enough, could be an elaborate scheme to just infect one guy's machine though, we'll never know.

 

[hilmar22]

I've always downloaded the standalone stable and latest when I remember. Then I can go back if the new version isn't working the way I want. I'm currently using 9.81.3o.

I don't know if it's true with the automatic update versions but if it doesn't delete the previous versions. The default install directories are located at c:\jts . Every major release gets it's own directory and it's own tws.exe.

 

[M.W.]

Good point

Finding genuinely good QA people is basically sifting through a huge "market for lemons".

 

[M.W.]

He is offering his help free of charge. Take it or leave it.

And why should we trust you to provide a version that doesn't include malware?

 

[M.W.]

Second that.

well, I've been having problems with the API since the change of exchange names over the weekend, but it turns out that 10.19.1f was the problem.

There were two problems:
(i) data for continuous contracts for those instruments which had a change of exchange name wasn't working; and
(ii) the API was returning exchange name of QBALGO for an instrument instead of returning ECBOT, leading to problems with data, and generally querying TWS with the API.

An "upgrade", if you can call it that, from "Stable" 10.19.1f to "Latest" 10.20.1c seems to have fixed both problems.

KH

 

[M.W.]

Well, lesson learned, always stay on stable offline, and retain the last version install file.

Yup it's the API that broke as well. Specifically order submission -- I can still pull market data into Excel, but the API order submission process is completely broken. Tried the Stable, Latest, and Beta versions that were bundled with this update; doesn't work for any of them. Still works on my secondary computer that for some reason didn't auto-update like my main one did.

That's actually a Q I still don't understand: I've never used the Offline installer, to the best of my knowledge...meaning I'd assume that on a given day ALL of my TWS installations would auto-update when there's a new version...but for some reason only 1 of the 3 PC's I tried today updated. But I'm concerned they'll do so tomorrow and I'll be completely out of luck. But is there a good reason one PC's installation may update on a given day while another may not? (Maybe there are mirror download sites that get updated at different intervals? That's all I could think of.)