Upgrade Warning -481: Incrementing the Shared DLL Reference Count for Dynamically Linked Files in a File Group

InstallShield 2019

In InstallShield Professional version 6.x and previous, setting the shared property for a file group which contained a dynamic file link resulted in incrementing the shared DLL reference count for all files in that file group on installation—regardless of the file link type. This upgrade migrates this setting to the shared attribute of the component created, in InstallShield 2019, for this file group.

Shared DLL Reference Count Behavior

In InstallShield 2019, setting the shared attribute of a component results in incrementing of the shared DLL reference count of only the key file for that component. Because dynamically linked files cannot be used as key files, the shared reference count is not incremented for any of the component’s files.

A component can have only one key file. Therefore, in order to increment the shared reference count for multiple files, each file must be in its own component and the file must be the component’s key file. Files must be statically linked if you want the reference count to increment the shared DLL reference count for each file.

Note • For EXE, DLL and OCX files, you can use the Component Wizard to quickly create components for large numbers of files.

In InstallShield 2019—even if a file is not marked as shared—if a shared DLL reference count already exists for a file, it is automatically incremented by the installation of that file and decremented by the uninstallation of that file.

Additionally, reference counts are maintained for components based on the component GUID (or Component Code property). Therefore, the shared property of a component is useful only where there might be file sharing with legacy installations, or if other components with differing component GUIDs install this file.

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