From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Ramon — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:22:52 GMT

Hello, I have a question.

Suppose that version 1 of your application (Wix script with no Major Upgrade support) is installed on a system, is it possible to update it with version 2 or a similar implementation without having to manually uninstall first?

Thanks!

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Greg — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:56:18 GMT

That's a really good post Alex. I've used your content to add a major install to my language pack and i'm not sure i could have done it without you page to reference/copy.

Thanks for the effort.

Greg.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

lupetti — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:37:00 GMT

Great post Alex. I successfully used your code for implementing a major upgrade.

It all worked fine until I had to change my product name.

Since my product name has changed, it seems that FindRelatedProducts does not find the older version, and after performing the upgrade I find 2 entries in add/remove programs (the old and new name). Do you possibly know how to solve this issue?

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

NDJ — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:25:24 GMT

Thank you so much for this brilliant post, you can't imagine how much time I was losing trying to get an upgrade to work!

Warning if you use 4-component versions!

Logan — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:39:47 GMT

Just a note to warn others: if the version number is supplied as four components (x.x.x.x), the fourth component will be IGNORED. Therefore, in order for a version to be considered new by Windows Installer, at least one of the initial three components must change. I burned a whole day on this one. :P

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Logan — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:42:52 GMT

@lupetti: Make sure the UpgradeCode is the same for both the old and new version (in the Upgrade table) and (as I just posted), the change in version number is one of the first three components of the version. Also make sure you haven't changed the per-machine/per-user setting as this can throw things off as well.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Sol Young — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:15:15 GMT

I'm with Ramon - If an UpgradeCode wasn't included in version 1, will an upgrade easily be detected for a version 2 that includes an UpgradeCode? Or is there additional code to write?

Your site is a fantastic resource btw!

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Dave — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:57:18 GMT

I'm also in with Ramon's question. I need always perform an auto uninstall of a previous version whether its major or monor.

Any suggestions Alex?

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Alex Shevchuk — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:14:36 GMT

Regarding Ramon's question on missing UpgradeCode in Version 1. Unfortunately, I don't think anything can be done to allow automatic major upgrade.

To enable major upgrade Windows Installer requires UpgradeCode, ProductVersion and ProductLanguage properties identified in the installation package. That is why the Best Practice with any installation package is to always assign values for these properties.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Prabhakaran — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:30:26 GMT

I followed the same steps as indicated above and i have created an updated MSI package to update the program and also the script in the database, but when i install the updated MSI package the SQL statements are not updated in the database

An ideas?

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Alex Shevchuk — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:39:02 GMT

Hi Prabhakaran,

Without knowing specifics it is hard to say why SQL statements are not updated. It could be an issue with when RemoveExistingProducts is scheduled to run (keypath for component is the same if REP is scheduled too late) or problem could be in the way how you install SQL statements.

Alex

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Prabhakaran — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:30:01 GMT

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the prompt reply. I have fixed the database update issue which i mentioned earlier. Now i have got a new issue i have 2 MSI packages, Error MSI and Fixed MSI. I would upgrade my Setup package using the Fixed MSI but again if i run the Error MSI the Setup package turns back again to the older version.

Is there anything to stop this or any suggestions?

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Alex Shevchuk — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:37:55 GMT

Hi Prabhakaran,

If I understood you correctly, you are having downgrading issue. Search for "PreventDowngrading" in the post above.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Prabhakaran — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:01:29 GMT

Hi Alex,

You are right i am having the downgrading issue i am using the same steps as mentioned above but it still downgrades.

I am using the following line to start the updated MSI package

msiexec /i Fixed.msi REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus

Am i right or going wrong somewhere i dont know where it is. If needed i can post you both the source files.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Alex Shevchuk — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:35:57 GMT

This command is for minor updates. To apply major upgrade simply install new msi:

msiexec /i Fixed.msi

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Anup — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:10:39 GMT

Hello

I followed your blog and I am able to sucessfully upgrade with the new MSI. ( major upgrade). Now when I use the new msi to uninstall the product, it fails with error ( this action is only valid for currently installed products.)

Can you provide some insights on what could be done to fix this ?

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Alex Shevchuk — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:31:06 GMT

Make sure that new version has both Product and Package codes different from original package.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

peter cli — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:36:51 GMT

How to prevent a custom action from running during a upgrade ?

i have this :

<Custom Action='CreateScheduledTask' After='InstallFinalize'>NOT Installed</Custom>

But this runs during the upgrade.

Thanks,Peter

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Alex Shevchuk — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 05:25:27 GMT

Hi Peter,

During upgrade Windows Installer sets the UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE property. You can use it in conditions.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Abhishek — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:45:32 GMT

Hello Alex,

I used created a wix based on the example given above.

The first time I installed the msi, it works great. There were no installations problems.

I created a new build and installed the msi

I get this error

[Window Title]

Windows Installer

[Main Instruction]

Another version of this product is already installed. Installation of this version cannot continue. To configure or remove the existing version of this product, use Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel.

[OK]

Can you please help me in finding the solution to this problem.

This is the behaviour I am expecting. When I install a new build, it should Uninstall the old version and install the new one.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Alex Shevchuk — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:08:04 GMT

Hi Abhishek,

Make sure you change Product Code (Product/@Id), Package Code (Package/@Id), and Product Version (Product/@Version). During upgrade only first three fields of Product Version are recognized. Fourth field is ignored and if two versions are different in fourth field only, they will be considered as the same version by Windows Installer.

Also, make sure that Upgrade/@Id has the same value as Product/@UpgradeCode and UpgradeVersion elements have correct values for Minimum and Maximum attributes.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Abhishek — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:29:53 GMT

Thank you very much for the quick response.

I generate a new guid for the Package.

I dont generate a new guid for the Product.

I have been testing with desktop builds.

So the version of the product was not changing. I will change the Product version and try this. Will give an update after I try this.

Do you want me to generate the Product guids too? When I did this installations happens succesfully but the the uninstall did not happen.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Amy Rosewater — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:36:37 GMT

I have a major upgrade authored into my wxs file as well. When I attempt to run the upgrade, I get a message in the verbose log from the RemoveExistingProducts action that states "Ignoring failure to remove product during upgrade - product already uninstalled." The product is definitely not already uninstalled, and then end result is the upgrade occurs, but now there are 2 instances of the product in ARP. Is there something I am doing wrong?

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Abhishek — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 22:29:40 GMT

1. My wix project is for a Visual studio package application. I generated a wix using the sample above.

1. When I install the msi for the first time, it installs successfully. I see the msi in Program and features with the right version.

2. I generate a new build and then install the msi again. The new version gets successfully installed. I see the new version in Program and features. But when I look at the dlls installed. They have not been refreshed yet. They are still from the previous build. The upgrade did not refresh the dlls. Any help on this would be great.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Abhishek — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:27:52 GMT

Please ignore my previous question. I got it working. I followed the instructions here and it worked.

Thank you very much Alex. This blog is excellent.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Rado G — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:31:37 GMT

Alex, thank for the great post.

We had per user installation, but we had to make it per machine or per user.

My initial approach was to use HKMU key and change "ALLUSERS" property in the custom build step if the user is privileged, but that broke full upgrade.

I fixed the problem by separating per user and per machine registry keys and changing the installation path if the user is not privileged.

And you post convinced me that this is the right solution in our case.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

BarryH — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:54:47 GMT

Mr Shevchuk,

Excellent work. Bare with my ignorance; I hope you can steer me in the right direction.

For the next release of my product, and for the first time, we will use WiX, instead of InstallShield. The release cycle is longish and we will have to generate a number of Alpha/Beta/RC builds for internal testing. My questions:

1) What is your recommended approach to upgrading these internal, pre-release, versions? A "Major Upgrade" seems a tad heavy handing since we'd have to change the ProductCode etc for every build and this could lead to, if I understand it correctly, an accumulation of said "codes". I should mention that completely uninstalling the product before installing the new version is not an issue. I'm looking for the most straightforward means of doing this.

2) What is your recommended approach to upgrading from a previous RTM version that used InstallShield which, as I understand it, does not result in having a handy UpgradeCode?

Many Thanks (even if you choose NOT to answer)

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Alex Shevchuk — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:19:03 GMT

Major upgrade is by far the easiest of upgrades/updates. It is even more so for pre-release development because it allows changing feature tree layout (move or delete feature, add subfeature), move or delete components, change the component code of existing component, change keypath of the component, etc. As far as major upgrade implementation, all it needs is upgrade code and version min/max. You still will need to keep track of product codes in some cases. For example, installation is done by using bootstrapper and you want to have some extra processing based on which version is being updated.

I don't have lot of experience with InstallShield, but I'll be surprised if their MSI's don't have UpgradeCode. For first WiX-based version of installer which upgrades InstallShield installer, you may want to schedule RemoveExistingProducts earlier, preferably between InstallValidate and InstallInitialize.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

BarryH — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:29:57 GMT

Many thanks for your excellent feedback and recommendations. I was secretly hoping you would suggest the major upgrade route; it looks like the most straightforward, definitive and flexible way to go.

(Ever thought about authoring a book on the subject?)

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 8 - Major Upgrade

Harald Gröne — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:23:23 GMT

Thank you so much, Alex.

My Upgrades stopped working, when I introduced languages. Finally I found the solution in your blog.

I had to add Language = '1031' in <Upgrade Version>.

This Blog is great.