Upgrade installation without uninstalling previous version..

joltman · Post by **joltman** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:44 am

Is there a way for installaware projects NOT to uninstall previous versions of the installed application when installing a new version?

The scenario is like this.
Our application is dependant on a network driver, this driver needs windows to reboot. When the user is upgrading to a new version of our application, the driver is already installed and needs not to be installed again.

But since installaware uninstalls the previously installed application this forces windows to reboot when its actually not needed.

Alex_Ronquillo · Post by **Alex_Ronquillo** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 12:05 pm

You may be looking for patching instead of upgrading. Take a look at the following whitepaper for more information http://www.installaware.com/installaware_patching.pdf

joltman · Post by **joltman** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:15 am

Thank you, i will start reading it now. However for me patching is about having a first install and then smaller subinstalls, in this case the second installer must be functional standalone as well.

Is this prossible with patching?

joltman · Post by **joltman** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:33 am

No im sorry this White paper dig not do it for us. Since it does an uninstall before installing the new versions.

Alex_Ronquillo wrote:You may be looking for patching instead of upgrading. Take a look at the following whitepaper for more information http://www.installaware.com/installaware_patching.pdf

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:49 am

You can switch of uninstallation, but it may show 'unexpected results' (not updating all files). (plenty topics for it here)

When your real problem is not the uninstallation, but some few files you could perhaps install them as a permanent file.

Craig Daniel · Post by **Craig Daniel** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 2:26 pm

Sounds to me like what you want to do is what Windows Installer calls a Minor Upgrade where newer files simply replace older ones without uninstalling everything. I wanted to do that as well. To my knowledge this is not possible with IA. Anyone care to correct me on this?

Stephen Ibbs · Post by **Stephen Ibbs** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 3:42 am

Hi - it is possible to install files without uninstalling. I had exactly this problem and got help from this forum.

Search for 'Installation without registering' dated 26th Oct 2006. It works for me.

Essentially it is an installation that does nothing. However I store some files using the Creatives option, then after the 'installation' I use the 'Copy local files' commands to copy in the new versions of the files.

HTH

Stephen