Product Version property only keeps ten characters

[mehran]

Hi There,

When We set the Product Version property to a string that has more than 10 characters, after building installer, the setup.exe file only shows first 10 characters of Product Version.

For example when I set the Product Version to 7.4.0.17067, when I right click on generated Setup.exe file and go to Detail tab, Product Version shows 7.4.0.1706

I even tried using a third party tool to set this property manually, but I get this error:
Current ProductVersion string is too small to accomoddate update.

We are at InstallAware 15.

Thank you for your help

[FrancescoT]

Dear Mehran,

There are two kinds of versions. The one with the 65535 limit for all four fields is the file version.
The one with the 255.255.65535 limit is the ProductVersion Property (major.minor.revision).

Windows Installer uses only the first three fields of the ProductVersion version. If you include a fourth field in your product version, the installer ignores the fourth field.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370859(VS.85).aspx

Hope this helps you.

Regards.

[mehran]

Hi Francesco,

First of all thank you for your fast reply.

But I have some other installer files on my computer that have Product Versions in 1.2.3.4 format (four segments).
I have attached one of them.

Even if this was the case and Product Version accepted only three segments, It should have truncated my installer product version (7.4.0.17067) to 7.4.0, and not 7.4.0.1706

I still think InstallAware just truncates the Product Version and only keeps first ten characters, which has caused problems for us.

Thanks

[FrancescoT]

Dear Mehran,

... let verify it!

Regards

[Kostya]

Hi,

I encountered the same problem recently and I see that there has not been described any solution here. And also did not find it anywhere else on the forum. So let me raise this issue again. As you can see, the last character of the Product version value is missed:

installer_properties.png (15.29 KiB) Viewed 16867 times

I also attached a sample project where it's reproduced. InstallAware X2, Windows 10. The same happens with X4 and X6 also. Could you help me with this, so that it is displayed completely?

My Sample Project - truncated product version.rar

(2.6 MiB) Downloaded 524 times

Thanks,
-Kostya

[FrancescoT]

Dear Kostya,

for now I can only confirm what seems to be an issue.

At any rate, please consider that Windows Installer uses only the first three fields of the ProductVersion version. If you include a fourth field in your product version, the installer ignores the fourth field.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370859(VS.85).aspx

Regards

[Kostya]

Hi Francesco,

Thanks for your reply and for the link. But this is not entirely the reason. According to the product version property documentation (on the same page you specified):

The first field is the major version and has a maximum value of 255. The second field is the minor version and has a maximum value of 255. The third field is called the build version or the update version and has a maximum value of 65,535.

When I try to assign a valid maximum version number like 255.255.65535, I get a truncated version number in the file properties exactly the same, even without the fourth field at all:

installer_properties2.png (15.09 KiB) Viewed 16847 times

That is, it really leaves a maximum of 10 first characters in any case, as described earlier in this thread. I didn't find any additional information from Microsoft that there are any other limitations. So I would like to ask you to clarify this since I encounter this when using IA.

Thanks,
-Kostya

[FrancescoT]

Dear Kostya,

the product version property, as reported by Microsoft Documentation, it's refereed to the VERSION pre-defined MSI property and not to the "product version" field listed with the file properties.

The "product version" as available with the file properties, IT'S JUST A DESCRIPTIVE FIELD.
In other words, what you are reporting it's just a cosmetic issue.

It's true that this value is not reported correctly, however this doesn't cause any issue.

This value doesn't invalidate the "File Version" value, which is reported correctly, and it doesn't have any effect on the version assigned to the generated setup package.

Hope this clarifies your doubt.

Regards

[Kostya]

Hi Francesco,

Thank you for the clarification! Then, is there a way to fill the Product Version with the just the first two/three fields of the File Version number? Or to set it separately somehow to display it in this way. So it would look better, non-truncated:
File Version: 1.2.3.45678
Product Version: 1.2.3

Thanks,
-Kostya

[FrancescoT]

unfortunately, there isn't a workaround that can be used.
Otherwise, I would have suggested it already...unless, you decide to use a shorter value.

Regards

[Kostya]

I understood, thank you Francesco! This made the situation much clearer.
-Kostya

[FrancescoT]

To inform that the latest IA X6 Creators Update (23.11) fixes the issue here reported.

PLEASE NOTE!
This update requires a new re-generated license file to activate the product.

Regards

[Kostya]

Hi Francesco,

It's great to hear that it's fixed. I installed this update and everything really works fine. Thanks much!

Best regards,
-Kostya

[FrancescoT]