I have created a couple of COM-Addins for MS Excel and MS Visio using Visual Studio 2013. Everything runs perfectly as planned.
As it is a living project, I have to update the code when we change some stuff. So I have to create new setup files and redistribute them to my team members to install it on their machine. The problem is, every time they have to uninstall the previous version before installing the new version that I have provided.
Is there a way that when we run the setup file, it ask to whether to "repair" or "modify" the existing installation so that we do not have to uninstall the previous version every time?
I used the "Install Shield" in Visual Studio to create the setup file.
Any help is appreciated.
One way would be to make every build be able to perform a major upgrade (uninstall old + install new) over an installed build. You'd add an entry in the Upgrade table to make this happen - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372379(v=vs.85).aspx
The Upgrade table entry could look like:
UpgradeCode MinVersion MaxVersion Language Attributes Remove ActionProperty
<Your UpgradeCode> Null Null Null 1 Null OLD_PRODUCT_FOUND
Related
I want to add a custom action to my visual studio installer project to delete some files that are created by my app during runtime. These files are dynamically created and not deleted as part of the normal uninstall.
My question is: what happens when you upgrade or update the application by installing a newer version? Does the installer run the Uninstall custom action?
I do have RemovePreviousVersions set to True in the deployment project properties. I'd actually like to delete the files only if it's a true removal not an upgrade.
RemovePreviousVersions will perform an uninstall.
If I understand your question correctly, you have files that are created after the application has been installed and you wish these to be removed when the product is uninstalled and not during upgrades.
I do not have experience with the VS installer types, but look for something that gives you access to the RemoveFile table. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa371201(v=vs.85).aspx
If the vs installer doesn't expose the RemoveFile table you may need to look into InstallShield 2016/2017 Pro or Premium. If you are really adventurous then look at WIX.
I've written a Visual Studio extension which installs using an MSI. The install puts a extension.vsixmanifest file in the right place, and the extension appears in the Extension Manager as expected:
The problem is, when I publish a new version on the Visual Studio Gallery, the Extension Manager does not report it. I add the new version by creating a new installer and editing the existing page. Each new installer has a new ProductCode, PackageCode and ProductVersion (I update the MSI setup project and the version number in the included extension.vsixmanifest), but the same UpgradeCode; an example 'upgrade' commit can be found on GitHub here.
The issue appears to be that when Visual Studio Extension Manager queries the extensions service for the latest version of my extension, it returns a blank string - the same result as if you query with an invalid extension identifier:
The two extensions successfully queried in the example are the NuGet client tools for VS2015 and the SQL Server Compact/SQLite Toolbox.
What am I missing?
OhhhhhhKAY. I've solved this, and it turned out to be a problem with the Visual Studio Gallery page editor.
When you add an extension, you're shown a VSIX ID box:
When you edit an extension (I'm using Chrome), that box has disappeared!
It's still in the DOM, but it's hidden from view. Because of this, I never entered my extension's VSIX ID into the form, it didn't have a value associated with it, and the extensions service therefore didn't return a version number for that ID. The Extension Manager uses the extensions service to find out the latest versions of installed extensions, so it wasn't reporting new versions of mine.
The VSIX ID box reappears if you deselect then reselect one of the extension's supported Visual Studio versions, so I've been able to assign the ID that way. The service now returns a version number, and the Extension Manager therefore shows available updates:
Probably you may need to raise ProductVersion as well and mind correct version conditions in Upgrade Table in installer project. If this will not help try investigating this issue installing with full verbose log (msiexec /i installer.msi /l*v logfile.log) this may give some clues. The worst case you may want to add an entry to RemoveFiles table to delete this file (during install before deploying your file) but that sounds nasty and i would prefer to avoid it.
I don't think this is a problem with your installer configuration, assuming your installer does, in fact, upgrade your product. If I understand your question correctly, this is an issue with Extension Manager.
Have you tried removing the trailing .0 from your new version string? There might be an poor/unexpected comparison result when comparing a 3-dot version to a 4-dot version.
You could also try doing a more extreme version number change (upping the major version) to see if Extension Manager picks that up.
I just installed VS2013. As there is no longer the Setup Project, I installed InstallShield LE. I used integrated import wizard and hoped any newer build would automatically update older versions created with VS Setup project. Well, I used to alter the Product Version, which prompted me to alter the Product Code, and that was it. Now I thought this should work with InstallShield as well, so I updated the product version and manually generated the product code. I had the older application installed and tried to reinstall it with this new IS LE setup. And the result is: There are two applications installed, which have exactly the same name and path (it installed in the same directory), but different version. I can really see 2 programs with the same name in "Programs and Features". I checked the upgrade code, it is the same for both. What did I do wrong?
Thanks
Check the installation type, i.e. per user or per machine. It must be the same for both versions, otherwise Windows Installer will skip removing the old versions and you will end up with both versions on your machine.
A verbose log created when you install the new version should also be helpful, you can search for FindRelatedProducts and RemoveExistingProducts standard actions in it, to see why the old version is not removed.
Well finally we were able to solve the problem. You need to place an entry to the Upgrades Path section. Oddly enough You need to do this manually and it's not done automatically by the IS import wizard.
I am using a setup project in VS 2010 to install a windows form application I have created. The setup project works great, however, if I update the application and change the version number and upgrade code of the setup project it does not update the application on the user's machine when the setup project is run again. It will go through the install steps and say that the installation was successful, however, the application that is on the user's computer remains exactly the same and is not the newer version. Oddly enough, if you were to run the setup project again an error will come up saying that this version of the application is already installed and that you must use the add/remove programs to remove the current version to continue with the installation. Has anyone else experienced this issue before. I have heard that this may not be possible using the setup project in VS 2010, but I am hoping that is not the case as this method has worked great for me with the exception of this issue.
You should not be changing the UpgradeCode property, this will have exactly the effect that you are seeing:
Caution
The UpgradeCode should only be set for the first version; it should never be changed for subsequent versions of the application, nor should it be changed for different language versions. Changing this property will keep the DetectNewerInstalledVersion and RemovePreviousVersions properties from working properly.
( via https://wayback.archive.org/web/20121029130031/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/465253cd(v=vs.100).aspx )
Assuming you want to remove the old version and replace it with the new one (as opposed to having them installed side-by-side, which is actually what you're doing) you should change the Version (of both the MSI and the file(s) being updated) and the ProductCode (of the MSI) and set RemovePreviousVersions to True.
I encountered same problem.
and I resolved with changing those four.
(I used Visual Studio Community 2019)
[setup project]
・Version
[.Net project]
・Assembly Version
・Assembly File Version
・GUID
I have a simple Web Setup project that reads from a Deployable Project.
Even though I have set the Setup to DetectNewerInstalledVersion to false I always get that annoying alert box that a previous installation exists and I need to go to the Control Panel and find the software to remove it...
Is there a way to add a script in a new new installation Dialog that could say A previous version was found, press NEXT to uninstall it. ?
Older versions are uninstalled automatically if you increase your Product Version and change the Package Code. This needs to be done each time you modify the setup project and build a new package.
If you keep the same version and Product Code, older builds cannot be uninstalled automatically. They are detected by Windows Installer before your new package is actually launched. So you need to uninstall them manually.
In my case I found out that the setup project wasn't part of the configuration manager.
Therefore, it wasn't rebuld on solution rebuilds and setup file with the new version and ProductCode wasn't generated.
The solution is simply to right click on the setup project and click rebuild.
Hope this help to future readers :)
The answer is not to use the Visual Studio setup project that's already integrated. I'm having the exact same problem: it won't remove previous versions even though I up the version, set it to remove previous version, check for previous version and rebuild, I can install but the files aren't updated. There are some good tools for this out there, check out bitrock, inno setup or wix.
Also Visual Studio 2010 was the last version with setup project support. It's not included in 2012.
I struggled with this for a long time but it is very simple.
Go to manage VS Extensions (VS2019) and install 'Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Project' v0.9.9
Right click on your installer project and go to properties. Keep the UpgradeCode variable in the properties window the same for different versions of the same product.
Change your ProductCode variable between different builds.
Now when you install the product with the same UpgradeCode already on the system, the installer will upgrade your existing product and you will only have one program in the Add/Remove window.
Create a .bat file
Write this code:
wmic product where name="SetupProgramName" call uninstall /nointeractive
cd Debug
setup.exe
Put this file in installer directory.