Patching Assemblies in the Global Assembly Cache

InstallShield 2019 Express Edition

Project • This information applies to QuickPatch projects.

With Windows Installer 3.0 or later, the MsiPatchOldAssemblyFile and MsiPatchOldAssemblyName tables enable a patch package to patch an assembly in the global assembly cache (GAC) without making a run-time request for the original installation source. By default, InstallShield automatically generates entries for these tables when you build a QuickPatch package. (To disable this automatic generation in a QuickPatch project, set the Generate MsiPatchOldAssembly tables property to No. In a QuickPatch project, this property is on the Advanced tab of the Build Settings item in the General Information view.)

Note • To automatically generate entries for the MsiPatchOldAssemblyFile and MsiPatchOldAssemblyName tables, InstallShield must have write access to the latest version of the .msi package to which the patch applies. InstallShield modifies this package before creating the patch. InstallShield automatically attempts to make this package writable; if it cannot, a build warning is generated, and the table entries are not created.

These table entries are applied only if the target system is running Windows Installer 3.0 or later. The patch runs if the system is running Windows Installer 2.0; however, these tables are ignored, and if the patch needs to update a file in the GAC, it makes a request for the original source package. InstallShield generates these table entries even if you include only the Windows Installer 2.0 engine in Update.exe, since a target system with Windows Installer 3.0 or later already installed can use them.

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