Installer question: Spurious entries in Add/Remove Programs

[Michael A. Covington]

Greetings,

I am working on a program that is in beta testing and goes through a new
version every week or so.

When there's a new version, go into the setup project change the Product
Code but leave the Upgrade Code and version number unchanged.

RemovePreviousVersions is set to True.

When the user installs the program, it overwrites the previous (nominally
same) version just fine.

But there are then two entries in Add/Remove Programs. "Removing" either
one of them will remove the program. If I then "remove" the other one, it
does something that doesn't raise any errors, but doesn't seem to have any
effect either.

Have I found a bug in Visual Studio 2003 or the Microsoft Installer? What's
up?

Thanks!

 

[Michael A. Covington]

I've gotten a partial answer which leads to a bigger question.

Microsoft, at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300540
says that in this situation I should be changing only PackageCode, not
ProductCode.

OK... where on earth is PackageCode?

I can't find it in Setup Project Properties or even the help system.

 

[Michael A. Covington]

Still more news.

Apparently the Package Code changes every time an .msi file is gnerated. So
far so good.

The problem is in setup.exe.

After rebuilding my deployment project, if I want to reinstall using
myapp.msi, over what the Installer thinks is the same version of the program
already there, I can choose "Repair" and everything goes just fine.

But SETUP.EXE refuses to run in that situation. It tells me the current
version is already installed and I must go to Add/Remove Programs and
"Change" it. If I try to do that, I get told that the .msi file is not
valid.

What is the PROPER way to distribute MINOR upgrades of a product, with
either the same or a slightly different version number?

Thanks to anyone who can shed light on it!

 

[Michael A. Covington]

More I was wrong. Behavior of myapp.msi is just the same as
setup.exe

If I rebuild my deployment application, I can't install it until I remove
the previous "version".

 

[David Guyer [MS]]

So, I'm a little lost on this thread, but one thing I noticed... you MUST
change the version of your setup project, otherwise RemovePreviousVersions
doesn't understand that there's an older version, just the same version.
But since the PackageCode has changed, it installs it, instead of going to
the repair/remove dialog.

---
David Guyer - VBQA Deployment Testing
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
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From: "Michael A. Covington"