This is not possible with a Basic MSI project, because of the way that Microsoft designed Windows Installer, which is the basis for a Basic MSI project. Windows Installer, by design, detects if a product is already installed then triggers maintenance mode, if it is. Microsoft would need to change the way that Windows Installer behaves in order to make this possible.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks!
You're welcome @rguggisberg. No, you'd be in the same situation with an InstallScript MSI project, because both Basic MSI projects and InstallScript MSI projects are MSI-based projects, so they're built on Windows Installer. That's just the nature of what you get with Windows Installer functionality.
The closest functionality that I could see would be with an InstallScript project. There's an option to have a no maintenance experience. I believe that results in a full install every time. However, the question there is whether the product is uninstallable if there's no Add or Remove Programs entry. And if you go this route, it drops the benefits of MSI entirely. So this is definitely a tradeoff that you'll need to consider.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks!
You're welcome @rguggisberg; thank you for the positive feedback. Thank you for your understanding, given that it was not quite the answer you were hoping for... I'm glad that now you know and you have moved on.🙂
