Regarding DTM Installation Downgrade - InstallShield

[sudhir_mk]

We are facing some problem while performing the downgrade operation. When we try to install the lower version of DTM build on top of the higher version of the installation, it is displaying upgrade message.

For example, install the  Build V4.2.0.4 and try to install   Build V4.2.0.3, it is displaying the message as "This setup will perform an upgrade of 'Project Name'. Do you want to continue?" .

This behavior is observed due to the limitation in the installation-2016 project itself, as the InstallShield does not consider the last version to perform the upgrade operation.

When the DTM version was having 3 digits, it was working perfectly fine with the upgrade and downgrade as well. When the DTM was changed with 4 digits, it is having the limitation in the downgrade support. 

Is it a limitation in InstallShield or there is some way to fix this ? 

Kindly suggest.

[t_lange]

Hi, I think there is a limitation from Windows Installer. major.minor.build Please look at: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/msi/productversion I hope this will help.

[shunt]

@t_lange is absolutely correct here. The Windows Installer engine will only read the first 3 fields of the product version number. The 4th field is only for internal use. In your case it will therefore be attempting to upgrade V4.2.0 to V4.2.0 - which is not an incremented version and therefore breaking upgrade rules.

[sudhir_mk]

Thank you @shunt   @t_lange   for your reply.

I have tried with Build V4.2.1.4 and try to install  Build V4.2.0.4, still facing the same. Before showing downgrade popup, the upgrade popup is appearing . Is there any way to avoid showing  upgrade popup while doing downgrade operation ?

[Jenifer]

Hi, There is no default MSI downgrade support from Microsoft.In your scenario you would have received upgrade message but after that you would get message like this: "A later version of is already installed on this machine. The setup cannot continue." This happens because InstallShield has version check to block. Why this happens? Since your older MSI will contain files with older date/time settings, and older file version settings, the normal file versioning rules applied by Windows Installer will prevent the older files from overwriting the newer files. Additionally, any "data" files in your newer installation will also not be overwritten if their modified date is newer than their install date. Therefore, to avoid all these restrictions, it is necessary to remove all the original "newer" files so that there are no versioning issues when the older files are installed. Thanks, Jenifer

[sudhir_mk]

Hi @Jenifer ,

Sorry for the late response.

I am quite unclear on below lines.

"This happens because InstallShield has version check to block. " and " To avoid all these restrictions, it is necessary to remove all the original "newer" files so that there are no versioning issues when the older files are installed." 

Can you please elaborate ?

[Jenifer]

Hi @sudhir_mk ,

To clarify your queries:

• "This happens because InstallShield has version check to block. "  -InstallShield has version comparison check to validate higher version is already installed or not.If so it won't allow you to install lower ones.
• " To avoid all these restrictions, it is necessary to remove all the original "newer" files so that there are no versioning issues when the older files are installed." 
  1. It is a generic upgrade rule that if you want to upgrade a file, it has to be of higher version than the existing one.
  2. If you have existing ones of higher version,but still want to upgrade those files have to be removed
  3. You can remove and add the new ones
  4. But these are file-level,in msi version level Installshield doesn't allow downgrade 

Hope it clarifies your queries

Thanks,

Jenifer

[Jenifer]

Hi sudhir_mk,

If it answers/solves your query please mark this question as answered/solved.That can help others to look for answer directly

Thanks,

Jenifer