Upgrade Warning -480: Incrementing the Shared .dll Reference Count for Files in a File Group

InstallShield 2020

In InstallShield Professional versions 6.x and earlier, setting the shared property for a file group resulted in incrementing the shared .dll reference count for all files in that file group on installation. This upgrade migrates this setting to the shared attribute of the component created, in InstallShield 2020, for this file group.

Shared .dll Reference Count Behavior

In InstallShield 2020, setting the shared attribute of a component results in incrementing of the shared .dll reference count of only the key file for that component. By definition, there can be only one key file per component. In order to increment the shared reference count for multiple files, each file requires its own component and the file must be the key file in that component.

Note:For .exe, .dll, and .ocx files, you can use the Component Wizard to quickly create components for large numbers of files.

In InstallShield 2020, 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.