InstallAware

I have heard from our users in the field that this has been happening but until now have not reproduced this. I have now reproduced this on three different servers running Windows 2003 Server.

Our installation supports multiple instances and so we have relied on the NEWINSTANCE variable to return the accurate value. I already have an instance installed on the 2003 server and when I run the installation again, the NEWINSTANCE property is set to FALSE when it should be TRUE. I have reproduced this on our development environment and have installed InstallAware on the server so I could debug the MSI code to see the values....and sure enough, it fails.

How does the NEWINSTANCE variable get set and what is the criteria that you test on?

I believe that if the product codes match, NEWINSTANCE should contain TRUE, at least that's how it works for me.

Yes, this is how it works most of the time. I wrote a work around so that I did not have to 100% rely on the setting of this variable. Most machines this works on fine, but in certain environments, specifically servers with one instance already installed, this seems to get a bit questionable....at least per my experience and it could be something that I have done. But I have combed over my install over and over again to make sure that the Transform Instance does not get called on the first installation as I think that this would cause the problem since the program would never be installed with the original Product Code. But at any rate, I have it working. Thanks for your input.

Hi there,

I think that I am seeing the same issue with a select few Windows 2003 servers as well. What was the workaround that ended up working for you?

Thanks!

I believe that if you install the first instance "A", then install instance "B", then uninstall instance "A", it will look to the installer that no instances are currently installed. If you then run the setup again, NEWINSTANCE will be false.

Could this be what your users are seeing?

Yes, that's exactly right!

According to jimo, the product codes need to match. Does the installer look in the registry for the product code of the previous installation or does it look somewhere else?