Common Tab

InstallShield 2020 » Upgrades View »Upgrade Windows Installer Setup

Project:This information applies to the following project types:

Basic MSI
InstallScript MSI
MSI Database
Transform

Project-specific differences are noted where appropriate.

The Common tab for the Upgrade Windows Installer Setup item in the Upgrades view contains global settings for both major and minor upgrades.

Small/Minor Upgrade Settings

Small updates and minor upgrades are functionally identical except the product version changes for a minor upgrade, but not a small update. A minor upgrade installs over an existing application while a major upgrade effectively uninstalls the existing installation of a product, and then installs the newer product version.

The functionality that is required to install a minor upgrade is in the Setup.exe launcher. For more information, see Run-Time Behavior for Minor Upgrades. To specify the behavior that should occur when Setup.exe detects that an earlier version of the product is present at run time on a target system, select the appropriate option:

Small and Minor Upgrade Options

Option

Description

Disable

When you choose this option, you are required to detect the upgrade scenario and ensure that the latest version of your setup is running in upgrade mode.

Don’t prompt the user; just install the upgrade

This option automatically starts the setup in minor upgrade mode.

Prompt

Choosing this option will prompt the “do you want to continue dialog.” If you choose yes, the setup will begin in upgrade mode. If you choose no, you will cancel the setup in upgrade mode.

Major Upgrade Settings

When you are performing a major upgrade, you can select how you want the upgrade to proceed. You can choose from the following options:

Options for Performing a Major Upgrade

Option

Description

Completely uninstall old setup before installing new setup

This is the most reliable setting, however, it is the least efficient. It will first remove all the files, registry entries, shortcuts, and settings of the old setup. Then it will apply new data from the latest version of your setup

Install setup then remove unneeded files

This is the most efficient setting, but it requires that you follow certain authoring rules. This option will first install the setup, and then remove all unnecessary files, registry entries, shortcuts, and settings after installing the latest version of your setup.

Caution:The removal of unnecessary resources relies on component reference counts being accurate. Keep in mind that reference counts occur at the component level. Therefore, you should be careful when you delete a component and move the associated resource to a different component. You do not want to choose this option if you have moved existing resources to different components.

Rollback all changes if removal of old files fails

In the event of upgrade failure, the machine will be returned to its previous good state. This option will undo the changes made by the uninstallation of a previous version and the installation of the latest version.

Note:This setting controls the sequencing of the RemoveExistingProducts action in the Install Execute Sequence. For more details, see RemoveExistingProducts in the Windows Installer Help Library.

See Also