InstallAware

Hi All,

I create database applications and using IA for installing my programs. I install my Main executable files along with some databases. When an update is needed, I need to simply ship out the files needed by the update like a new .EXE and reports, etc.

I noticed that IA and Windows Installer updates uninstall the previous installation prior to apply an update. Also the patch feature will only work with uncompress IA files, which make this option not useful for me or my users.

Question is:
What others are doing in order to update applications installed with IA?

When I was using Wise Installation System 9.0, I simply created a new script which will install the new files over the existing one, could this be done with IA?

Yes this will work, just make sure that the files you are overwriting are not marked as "Vital for Installation" or Windows Installer will replace your overwritten files with the original ones.

I plan on using web media blocks to help prevent bloated installs for updates but we aren't deployed like that yet. Don't forget third party components can be made into prerequisites so you don't need to keep them in your main install for updates but version changes could let you update them then and still keep your main update small.

jimo wrote:Yes this will work, just make sure that the files you are overwriting are not marked as "Vital for Installation" or Windows Installer will replace your overwritten files with the original ones.

Hi Jimo,

Thanks for the info, but should I create another script for my updates, with just the files I want to change, or should I use the original script and ship out everything again?

Right now my setup is about 50mb compressed, but for an update I don't want to re-send files that will not be changed.

MLS wrote:I plan on using web media blocks to help prevent bloated installs for updates but we aren't deployed like that yet. Don't forget third party components can be made into prerequisites so you don't need to keep them in your main install for updates but version changes could let you update them then and still keep your main update small.

Hi MLS,

Thanks for this tip, I really would like to use web media blocks, but I have found some customer which install my program on a computer without Internet Access, so this may be a big problem for me, since I want to sell the program anyway.