Upgrade Warning -487: Overwriting Files Upon Installation

InstallShield 2019

Installing Files Based on the File Group’s Overwrite Property

In InstallShield Professional version 6.x and earlier, you had the ability to set overwrite properties for individual file groups. One file group could install files based on date, while another installed files only if the file version is older than the file version on the target machine.

Installing Files Based on File Versioning Rules

InstallShield 2019 uses a methodology called file versioning rules to determine which files need to be installed on the target machine. The only option at the component level to override file versioning rules is to set the Never Overwrite property to Yes.

File Versioning Alternatives

Although the default file versioning rules are satisfactory for most applications, there might be cases where an application’s requirements necessitate that you control the rules used to decide if a file should be overwritten. To this end, there are a couple of alternatives to file versioning that can be used either individually or in conjunction with each other to modify file versioning rules.

REINSTALLMODE

The REINSTALLMODE technique for overriding file versioning rules is a global mechanism for establishing custom versioning rules. Using this technique affects versioning rules for all files in the installation.

To use the REINSTALLMODE property:

The installer reads this property at install time and uses its settings to override file versioning. This setting is also used by the installer during a reinstallation or repair of the application.

Companion Files

The companion files technique for overriding file versioning rules enables you to configure a file so that it installs based on the installation of a companion file. This technique is useful when it makes sense to bind the installation states of several files together.

For example, you can bind a non-versioned user data file to a versioned .exe file. If the .exe is not installed, the user data is not installed.

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