How to update Merge Modules manually?

[cbarlow]

Can someone please offer some guidance on Merge Modules? My C:\Program Files\Common Files folder has newer merge modules I need to include in my project. I'd rather not override the older ones, because I have multiple projects and they don't all need the newer ones. I copied the newer msm files to the C:\Program Files\InstallShield\2010\Modules\i386 folder and appended the file names with _new. I assumed they would show up in the Redistributables view, but I don't see them. Is what I'm trying to do even possible?

My projects are basic MSI.

Thanks for your help.

Clark

[cbragg]

They need to be registered with Installshield.
The easiest way to add that reference is to right click within the redistributables view, and select browse for merge module, browse to the one you added to your merge modules folder and you're done.

Bear in mind though that you may end up with two merge modules with the same name because it's the product name that shows not the filename

[cbarlow]

I did this for all the "_new" modules I added, and I found that some were added and others weren't. Does this mean that some of the merge modules were the same as ones that were already there? How does InstallShield check to see if two Merge Modules are the exact same? By the version number, file date, file size?

Clark

[Peter_Goodwin]

I've just upgraded to IS2010 and come across the same issue, specifically with the Microsoft Visual C runtime. I'm sure you've worked round it now over a year on but I can't see any other postings specifically relating to this issue. It seems different versions of these (.762, .4053 etc) all have the same Package code (or Revision number depending where you look in IS Direct Editor) so I'm guessing InstallShield treats these as the same merge module. It seems IS will display the ones in the Redistributables view based on the last one browsed and selected, but not both versions at the same time, although given that they have different Product Versions maybe they should both be displayed?

[cbarlow]

Messing with the merge modules created all sorts of problems for me that I just abandoned it altogether. I now include the Microsoft run time libraries as an exe and run it as a prerequisite with conditions to check if it's been installed on the target machine or not.

[Peter_Goodwin]

OK thanks, seems to be the logical route now, I have an ever-increasing number of Pre-requisites and less merge modules. Where they work reliably I still use a few merge modules in my projects, but trying to stay up-to-date with Microsoft runtime changes, security updates and OS support is becoming more of a challenge!