I have a Visual Studio Setup project which has a Application Folder DefaultLocation set to[ProgramFilesFolder][Manufacturer]\[ProductName]. I would like to change this to include the software's version number, like [ProgramFilesFolder][Manufacturer]\[ProductName][Version], but Visual Studio doesn't seem to support it.
Is there an alternative to manually changing the Application Folder's DefaultLocation every time I create a new release?
You can use [ProductVersion] in the same way as [ProductName] and set product's version in the project's properties window.
The way I would do it is create a post-build event, that runs a Javascript program that modifies the MSI. It should be a pretty simple thing.
There's a sample script that modifies an MSI in the answers to the question
How to run an EXE after MSI installation?
That script doesn't do what you want but using Orca and that script, you should be able to figure out how to create your own, that modifies the MSI to insert the version number automatically.
It should be a single db update.
You have [ProgramFilesFolder][Manufacturer]\[ProductName][Version]
Try [ProgramFilesFolder][Manufacturer]\[ProductName]\[ProductVersion]
In particular, note the slash after [ProductName]
Related
I want to attach my own folder name to the "DefaultLocation" during msi installation (using VS 2005). Currently all programs installs at "C:\Program Files (x86)". I want to append some "xyz" path to the installation path during installation. So, once the user clicks next, the path for the installation should be "C:\Program Files (x86)\xyz".
Can anyone tell me how to do this in the windows installer.
The short answer is no, because here is nothing in Visual Studio setup projects to support that. You'd need the ability to change the target directory in the UI sequence after that dialog, that's what's missing.
VS setup projects are limited in their support for all the features of Windows Installer, so migrating to a different tool would be useful if this is the kind of customization you're looking for.
Could anyone tell you how to do this in Windows Installer? Technically yes. You'd need somebody who knows enough about the insides of MSI files generated by VS to design a solution (a custom action based off the Next button?) and change the MSI file manually to do it, and how to repeat that after every build (a post build script), and for you or your company to understand enough to fix it if it stops working. That doesn't seem practical compared to just using a tool that will let you do it. My apologies for the editorial but if VS doesn't support it your choices are limited.
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.
I have an update to third party .DLL that must be installed onto my clients' computers. We currently employ automated installs via MSI that are created in Visual Studio 2010
Unfortunately, the third party .DLL was versioned incorrectly and file version of it was not increased by the provider (they only increased assembly version). The third party provider is Microsoft, so waiting on them to fix the issue is not realistic. We need to get the new .DLL to people now and within one MSI update. Right now, MSI update is not overriding the .DLL
Is there a way within VS2010 Setup project to force override a .DLL even if the file versions match?
If you are willing to do msi postbuild tweaking you can hit the File table and do "version lying". Another thought is to not put that DLL in your install. Find an installer from Microsoft ( if it exists ) that you can put into a bootstrapper or create your own installer and use AMUS instead of OMUS for the version rules.
Can't you just add the file to your installer as a 'file' and install it with the other files? Don't set it as project output, or any of the canned install actions. Go to the file portion and right click the "Application Files" folder, and say > add file. Navigate to the file that you want and choose it.
In a Visual Studio setup project, is there a way to generate automaticaly the MSI fileName according to the current application version number?
Are you able to fire post-build code when your .MSI is built? If so, you can use File.IO to rename the file and use something like:
System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.CurrentVersion
I have a Windows Forms application with an installer (.msi) already created with Visual Studio. I am now creating a new installer for version 2.0 with the property RemovePreviousVersions set to true.
Now, when I install 2.0 over 1.0 it removes 1.0 and installs 2.0 completely.
Is there a way that I can tell the installer if you find some files already installed (like .xml files used for data) then don't override them?
I am trying to have my 2.0 installer serve the 2 purposes:
Install from scratch for new users
Existing users will upgrade but not lose their customizations
The deployment project in VS does not overwrite files. What happens is that since you have RemovePreviousVersions set to true, when you change your program file version and the ProductCode GUID of the setup project, it will first uninstall the previous version and then will do a clean install of the new version.
To make sure some files don't get overwritten, I usually exclude them from the Content or Primary output files (wherever they are located) and then add them separately to the setup project. Doing this, you can individually set properties for those files. The property you are looking for is called Permanent" that if set to true will never uninstall the file in question, and therefore will never overwrite it with a new version. The only drawback with this is that when you uninstall the product, the Permanent files will not get removed from their target locations, but in my case (usually local DB files), that's a good thing ;)
Cheers!
[edit] The above is true for VS 2008 SP1. Haven't tried it on other versions, so hopefully you are using the same VS version or it works for the version you use.
[edit2] Oh, also you could also use the "Condition" property to achieve something similar. If you do that, make sure that "Transitive" is set to True so the Condition is always evaluated. Haven't tried it with Conditions, but that's another option you could look at. Other than these 2, I think that's pretty much it for VS deployment projects.
When I was in a similar situation what I did was:
The files that were customized by each user and should NOT be touched by the installer were NOT included in the MSI (NOT in the Visual Studio Setup Project). When the app was run for the first time I generated the XML files through the code.
The files that were static (e.g. data that was used to populate Dropdownlists) I included in the MSI and I can update those by building a new MSI with Visual Studio.
Basically don't include customizable files in your MSI project. Create them in code for new users.
I never looked into telling the MSI not to update certain files that are included in the MSI file. The solution I came up with was perfect for me. I don't know if it can be done.
I hope this helps.