I am modifying a Basic MSI to include an upgrade for our previous release. I have used the Media->Upgrades section to add an Automatic Upgrade Item and have pointed to my previous installer.  I get a warning when building the installer saying it will perform a MINOR upgrade, but then yelling at me that a component is missing from the newest version of your setup and that a major upgrade must be performed. Here is the exact lines from the build output: ISDEV : warning -6487: If you intend to distribute this upgrade as a patch, you should author the 'Patch Optimization' setting on the Advanced Settings panel of the Release Wizard. Media table successfully built Performing Upgrading and Patching Validation Val0003: This setup will perform a MINOR upgrade of the referenced previous setup c:\users\t~1.nre\appdata\local\temp\afe0\filename release 2021.1.msi ISDEV : error Val0006: The Component '_AB7038D8CC958FA437E073E95FD47C42' identified by ComponentID '{AB7038D8-8CC9-58FA-437E-073E95FD47C4}' is missing from the newest version of your setup. You can not delete components and still do a minor/small upgrade. You must perform a major upgrade. c:\users\t~1.nre\appdata\local\temp\afe0\filename release 2021.1.msi ISDEV : warning Val0015: The CreateFolder table contains new content. Therefore, if you are packaging this upgrade as a patch, you will not be able to make it an uninstallable patch. c:\users\t~1.nre\appdata\local\temp\afe0\filename release 2021.1.msi Two questions: 1) Why did the "automatic upgrade" decide to perform a MINOR upgrade, but then yell at me that I must perform a major upgrade?? 2) The component is references...I could not find it in my previous installer project file, nor this one. What is this? Where is it coming from? And why doesn't it give me the name of the component I created, instead of just the GUID and some other form of the GUID? If it gave me the name, I might be better able to recognize it. But to be clear, a component with this GUID does not exist in my previous installer that I'm creating the upgrade against.  And in regards to the Warning, the 'CreateTable' does NOT contain any differences between the current .ism and the previous .ism used to create the previous installer. So I have no clue why it is reporting that either! Any help on any of this would be appreciated. ... View more

I am building a Basic MSI installer that creates an installation launcher (setup.exe).  I am also creating an automatic update from a previous version of our software. When I build the installer, I get this warning message: ISDEV : warning -6487: If you intend to distribute this upgrade as a patch, you should author the 'Patch Optimization' setting on the Advanced Settings panel of the Release Wizard. When I go to the Advanced Settings panel of the Release Wizard, I assume the warning wants me to fill out the "Patch Optimization (optional" section. It wants me to select the previous package. However the problem is it only allows me to select an .MSI extension file. Since my installer is wrapped in an .exe, how do I properly set this up? Thanks, ... View more

I want to add an environment variable to install with my application. I want it to install to the System area of the environment variables if the person doing the installation has administrative privileges. But if not, I want it to place the environment variable into the current User area.  I can't figure out how to accomplish this easily?! In the Environment Variables view, when you add a variable, the only option for "Type" is "System" or "User". If I choose "System" and try to install as a normal user with privileges, I get an error during the installation process, near the end about not being able to add the environment variable.  Doesn't it make sense to have an option like the registry has (and which I take advantage of) to place registry keys in HKEY_USER_SELECTABLE? That's easy! If I'm overlooking something and there is an easy way, please let me know.  Thanks, ... View more

We are required to create our installers so that our product can only be installed by an administrator. I have set the flags correct to do this and it seems to be working. The problem now is that I'd also like to create folders and files for the end-users who'll be using the software. Something like creating folders and files under "My Documents", etc. Is this possible? I understand the problem that the admin account installing the software doesn't know who the end-users are. But I was curious as I have seen other software (Visual Studio, MATLAB, etc.) where I find a "Visual Studio 20xx" folder under My Documents with subfolders and files, even though it was installed by an admin. Otherwise, what might be my options here, if any? Creating separate admin and user installs?... Thanks, ... View more

So I had a crash with Installshield 2010 a few weeks ago. I wanted to report it. I couldn't find a link on the main webpage to submit an issue, but I saw there was an Account Login section. So I filled out for an account. I received an email back saying that I couldn't get an account because I had no maintenance license. I was told that if I wanted to submit a bug report, I would have to purchase a per incident support request and if it turned out to be a legitimate bug, I would be refunded! Is this not the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard?! I would think as a pure customer feedback improvement experience, they would welcome bug reports and feature requests. Is this forum a mechanism for such reports and requests? If there is no other way to get information to Flexera, then this must be it. I've been a customer of Installshield since IS5; a long time. And yet there are things in the IDE that are still nuisances to this very day. Is this because there's no easy way to submit these type of requests?!! ... View more

So my Basic MSI project has begun to leave folders around after an uninstall. No files, just empty folders. I can't figure out why. If I install on a fresh OS install clean machine, then my app files get uninstalled perfectly. But on some machines that have been around for awhile, they do not. The only thing I have been able to discover as a clue is the registry location HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Folders . There are various string values here, each relating to an individual directory in my installer. Some of the values have the data column filled out with a '1', other values have the data field empty. After uninstall, only string values that have a data column value of '1' remain. What does this registry key mean and what does the data field of the values indicate? Is there a way to change it through the IDE? The other clue is that these folders are all part of components where I am using 'dynamic file linking', and including subfolders in that linking. Why might these directories not be uninstalling?! Thanks, ... View more