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anom217
Level 8

Upgrade process - help

In my Basic MSI project I'm going to have a standardized upgrade process. So if the product is already installed, there is the option to either upgrade or remove the software. By clicking upgrade, it replaces certain files and values with resources in a preset location. This way the same upgrade interface can be used repeatedly by having newer resources in place.

The question I have is how I should perform the Execute phase during the upgrade process. I have custom actions that will grab the new files and replace them, etc., but should I create my own progress bar dialog from scratch to show the progress of this? Can I just use the Ready to Install dialog, or will that cause problems? What's the best way to access the Execute phase of InstallShield for what I'm doing?

Does anybody have any guide or advice for what to do during the Execute phase of the upgrade?
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KathyMorey
Level 10

I'm a little confused. If you're using a Basic MSI, why aren't you letting the MSI replace the new files? Why do you need custom actions to do that?
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anom217
Level 8

I need to delete the original files, then replace them with new files, extract them, in some cases use ANT scripts to create the required settings. It's more complicated than just deleting and copying over files to destinations.

Regardless, even if I was just copying over files to replace the ones in the current location, how would I do the Execute phase? If I had the upgrade dialogs link to the ReadyToInstall dialog to launch the execute process, would there be a problem since the software is already installed, and certain settings like registry keys are already set? In some cases I might have to change what the installer does during this process for an installation.

What have people done before to create an upgrade process for their product?
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KathyMorey
Level 10

When you say "Execute phase", are you talking about the Execute sequence? You don't have to do anything to run it; Windows Installer service runs it after the ExecuteAction in the InstallUI sequence.

Maybe I'm not understanding you properly, but it sounds like you're trying to replace the basic functionality of Windows Installer. Have you taken a look at the Microsoft documentation for how to do upgrades? Most of it is inbuilt and relatively straight-forward.
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anom217
Level 8

You are right, I'm adding my own upgrade capability to the installer.

From what I've seen, it seems upgrades are typically performed by creating a patch or upgrade version in InstallShield that can be run by itself as its own .exe or .msi. I don't want to do that. I need to have something similar to the Repair option, where it is included in the original installation msi file and the interface is the same every time.
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