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shaubenthal
Level 3

Misleading message?

Error message: "You will have to uninstall the previous version before installing this version."

First scenario:
version 1.0 installed
version 2.0 installed
version 1.1 failed to install (depends on 1.0)
The message makes sense.

Second scenario:
version 1.0 installed
version 2.1 failed to install (depends on 2.0)
Why "uninstall the previous version"? 2.0 is simply missing!

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(4) Replies
banna_k
Revenera
Revenera

Hi @shaubenthal ,

What kind of Installshield project you are using to create your installer, is it Basic MSI project or InstallScript project or Installscript MSI project ?

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Jenifer
Flexera Alumni

Hi @shaubenthal ,

 

It might be due to you would have installed higher version installed but cleaning wasn't done properly.That means some of the registry entries been created on behalf of higher versions not cleaned properly.

Having msi log can help us help you with better.Can you try attaching here?

 

Thanks,

Jenifer

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Hi Jenifer,

There's no real project right now, just a proof of concept, no intentional cleaning. The scenario is rather simple: Someone "forgot" to install a required version. About the log: setup.ilg doesn't change because the message box quits the setup at the very first beginning.

By the way the message is not part of 0x0409.ini so replacing seems to be rather complex.

Thank you so far,
Stefan

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What you describe is working as designed. I expect the all the prior releases were not pointed to when the v21 is built.

In your differential release - point at both or all the previous releases. If you are building a differential release, you must use the Release Wizard to specify one or more existing releases to which the current project is compared when creating the new differential release.

For example, if all of the target systems have an earlier version of the product, you can package your upgrade as a differential release. This type of release contains the files that are absent from—and/or have a different date, time, size, or attribute than the version in—one or more of a specified set of existing releases. A differential release is used to update the versions of your product that were installed by those existing releases.

Paraphrased - sage advice from InstallShield dev team: If you are concerned about size differential media may be useful. If you are trying to update from any prior state to the latest use a full release. Full release simplifies matters and facilitates an end user uninstall/reinstall in the event of a runtime failure.

Trade-offs are magnified and occur in different ways depending on what the pure InstallScript installer includes. For example, a small install does not benefit much either way; a large install with mostly unchanged files can benefit from differential media, or from restructuring; a large install with mostly changing files does not necessarily benefit from differential media. At any size, once you need differences between multiple prior versions, the total cost may exceed that of just including the whole file.

The differential media should be avoided except for very focused scenarios.