When to change product codes.

[ken rentz]

Is there any given point when you should change the product code for an install of a program? We are working on a minor revision release of one of products, and I would like to change some of the internals of how the installer works (fewer media blocks, changed logic in finding previously installed components, etc.). the actual files to be installed will be fairly close to what was installed previously.

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with how the caching, patching parts of an MSI based install work to tell if I'm going to be having any problems in the future if I change things now.

I'm not concerned with how these changes would affect new installs, but rather what would happen if a customer who has an earlier product installed was to install this newer one.

[MichaelNesmith]

If the product code is the same but the revision code has changed, InstallAware will automatically uninstall the old version for you. This is automatic - you do not need to do anything to make this happen. So I don't think structural changes in your setup will be a burden at that point, unless you are intending to not-uninstall the old setup.

[ken rentz]

That's good to hear. Our install includes over 100 meg of support/data files, and I don't want to have the old web blocks lying around if I can help it.