We used to use a 4 part version number of major.minor.milestone.changelist. Because our minor never changed, and windows installer ignores the 4th part, we had issues with upgrading our files. So as part of my build, I stripped out the minor, and made a 3 part version number. That work fine. However now, we've internally switched to 3 part numbers, and dropped the milestone field. The downside is I now have released installs that are at version 1.10.xxxx, and I need to update them with my newest installer, which is 1.0.yyyy. For various reasons uninstalling the old one first is not an option. Is there any way to force IS to allow the installation of the "older' 1.0.yyyy version ? ... View more

This has got to be the weirdest bug I've ever seen. My installer has a requirement that VMWare tools are installed on the machine before you run mine. It's a totally separate thing, not nested in my installer. When my installer is run, I do a System Search for HKLM\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Tools\InstallPath to make sure vmtools is installed. Store it in a property and check that as an install condition. That works fine. If my installer hits an error, and rolls itself back, it wipes out the installation of vmtools. There's still a folder C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools, but all that's in it are some tmp files. The entry in add/remove programs is also removed. There is NOTHING in my installer other than that system search that references vmware tools. I have no idea how or why it's getting wiped out. ... View more

I'm having a problem with a small update. My installer has a new & higher version number, and all the files I'm trying to replace have higher version numbers, yet they don't get copied over the existing files. The installer knows it's doing an update: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying REINSTALLMODE property. Its current value is 'omus'. Its new value: 'vomus'. PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding IS_MINOR_UPGRADE property. Its value is '1'. But every component has a line like this: Component: Uniservice.exe; Installed: Local; Request: Null; Action: Null and no new files get copied to the system. I don't understand what else to do. Why is it ignoring all my newer files? ... View more

I just downloaded the new version of the standalone builder, and when I went to install it, I got a dialog that said I had to uninstall the old version myself before I could install the new one. What's wrong with this picture ? I thought one of the points of using IS was it could handle updates to products in the field. Especially a product like SAB that doesn't even need registry updates and isn't going to be running when you do the update. Color me unimpressed. ... View more

I have a dialog in my installer that prompts for a server address. How do I make it so they have to enter something before the Next button is enabled ? At this point I'm not really worried about validating the input, just requiring they enter something. ... View more

I have an installer that installs stuff to both xp & vista (and win7 pretty soon). For the pieces that are different between platforms I have a FooXP and FooVista component, and set an install condition based on the value of VersionNT. I forget exactly where I cribbed an example from, but my XP components say: (Not VersionNT=500) And (Not VersionNT=502) And (Not VersionNT=600) And (Not VersionNT=601) and my Vista components say: (Not VersionNT=500) And (Not VersionNT=501) And (Not VersionNT=502) And (Not (VersionNT=600 And Not (MsiNTProductType=1))) And (Not VersionNT=601) Looking at it today I'm wondering why I don't just test for VersionNT=501 for XP and =600 for Vista. Which is better ? Test for the one you want, or make sure it's not all the ones you don't want ? Is there any reason why the former wouldn't work ? Thanks ... View more

I'm having some issues with installing a newer version of my stuff, and it not copying the new files to replace the old ones. Basically my installer delivers a bunch of driver files to \Program Files\company\product\Drivers then through custom actions install the drivers. When I tried to install a later version only 2 of the 5 driver.sys files were updated with the new versions. All the new files had different md5 sums, different timestamps. One thing I did notice is that if you right-click->Properties->Details on the drivers, the 3 that didn't change have a file version (which is the same) and the 2 that got updated didn't have any file version. In my Basic MSI project each driver is its own component, containing 2 files: the .sys & the .inf, with the .sys file being the key file. Is that the correct way to do it ? On a related note, I need to run one custom action for a certain component on a new install, and a different one on an update. On the update case I used the condition 'Installed AND (Not "REMOVE=ALL")' but it doesn't run. What should I use for a condition here ? Appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks, Drew ... View more

When I install my stuff on Vista one of the pieces won't run because it's looking for vc90 crt 21022 but the vc90 merge model installs 30729. A whole bunch of searching shows there's issues with that merge module such that references to the old version aren't properly redirected to the new one. I want to use the vc++ 2008 redist as a prerequisite, much like the vc++ 2005 that comes with IS. Using the prerequisites editor I made a new prereq file, basically copying most of the 2005 one. One thing I'm not sure about is what to use as the condition. 2005 checks for the absence of registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\B25099274A207264182F8181ADD555D0 which I'm assuming is tied to VS2005. What's the equivalent key for 2008 ? THanks ... View more

How come I can access the Installation Interview section in the project assistant with a basic msi project, but not an InstallScript msi ? I want to remove the requirement of the user entering name & company, and the option of a custom install. I have been all over the installation designer interface and can't find any equivalent settings to change. Is it possible to enable the II page for this project type ? ... View more