Upgrade an old Installation - how

[cmiag]

When my Installation is performed on a machine on which my program is installed in an older version, then the Installers prompts if the user wants to do a

- Modify or
- Repair or
- Uninstall

However, I would like to offer the ability for an Upgrade. By this I mean that the components are installed in their latest version, without having to do a Remove and then a fresh Installation. Or is this what the Modify Option is supposed to do?

Kind Regards
Matthias

[sinan]

Matthias

If you change the revision code for your product, InstallAware will automatically offer to uninstall the old version, and will reinstall the new version as soon as that's done. The process is seamless. The user will not have to manually uninstall anything...InstallAware will take care of it all.

If you don't like this approach, you can build a patch. Patches require the old version to be installed, and literally patch the old version to bring it up to date to the new version. But using patches isn't a great idea if you are making a major upgrade of your product.

Finally, if your product has changed, but you haven't changed the revision code or the product code in your installer, you will get the Modify/Repair/Uninstall screen. It is NOT recommended to use that screen as it will orphan the files left over from the old install. The proper way is to always change your revision code to let the installer know your product has changed. You can have InstallAware automatically update your revision code every time you build a setup in the Project Settings window.

[cmiag]

When I go to Project | Options, then under Build | Output, I see that the Option "Change Revision Code automatically upon rebuild" is checked (X).

My InstallAware Project is under source Control, and I always retrieve the exact same copy from the source control server before I build the installer. Does InstallAware change the Revision Code BEFORE or AFTER the build is performed ?

To really check if my revision code is updated properly, I would like to inspect the MSI FIle and look at its revision code. Is there a tool with which I can inspect the MSI, so that we can track down this problem ?

Kind Regards
Matthias

[sinan]

InstallAware updates the revision code during a build, and then saves the updated number if you choose to save your project.

You may inspect the revision code of your setup by right clicking the MSI, choosing Properties, then the Summary tab, and then by clicking the Advanced button, to reveal the Revision Number field (all within Windows Explorer).

[cmiag]

Sinan

Thanks for your quick response. An inspection of two msi Files which were generated by my build process revealed that the revision numer did not change. Yes, I have the option checked which says that the revision number should be changed automatically, but it seems that this does not help very much because I do not check out the InstallAware Project from my source control software, and thus do not save it.

So I assume that InstallAware does change the Revision Number AFTER the build, and this newly generated number is not saved because I do not check out the project file and save then newly generated Revision number. I this assumption correct ?

I am building my Installer every night from a batch. How can I make sure that the InstallAware will save the project file, so that the newly generated revision number is not lost ?

Thanks for your patience
Matthias

[sinan]

If you are building from a batch file, you are probably calling the command line build program. The command line build program actually has a parameter that changes the revision code when you rebuild. This parameter has to be specified in the command line. Also, the command line build program will not save the value of the new revision number in your setup project, but every time it builds, it is capable of automatically building with a new revision code. I believe the parameter is /r, by the way.