Actually, the only difference between minor upgrades and small updates is
patch/transform applicability. UpgradeCode, the Upgrade table, the
FindRelatedProducts and RemoveExistingProducts actions are all
ignored/suppressed, and as a result ProductVersion is also ignored (except for
"assigning" the last-used ProductVersion to be the product's version if the
transaction is successful).
You were possibly using a bootstrapper of some sort with InstallShield.
Otherwise double-clicking your MSI will always produce the "This product is
already installed" error message if any package with the same ProductCode is
already installed. If that wasn't the case with your InstallShield MSIs then
you were not using what Windows Installer calls "minor upgrade" after all.
The above is the reason that small update packages can produce broken
downgrades (depending on the value of REINSTALLMODE) . That is one possible
reason that minor upgrades require explicitly setting the REINSTALL and
REINSTALMODE properties (so you will be forced bootstrap it to make sure what
you intend to happen will happen).
Don't let the words "major" and "minor" wrt Windows Installer fool you. In my
experience major upgrades tend to always be the simplest kinds of upgrades to
do. If you are worried about it you can minimize the work that the upgrade
performs by always following the component rules and always conditioning your
custom actions' activities on component states, coupled with "late" scheduling
of RemoveExistingProducts. And since UpgradeCode is never used in a non-major
upgrade, I don't understand what can ever go wrong by supplying one.
-Blair
> To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net
> From: thomas.debo...@rohde-schwarz.com
> Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2011 16:30:51 +0100
> Subject: [WiX-users] Antwort: Re: What happend to minor upgrade using wix
>
> Hi Mat,
>
> thanks for the hint with the tree version numbers. I will try by changing
> the third number.
> Just to clarify. I had used in InstallShield pure MSI packages.
>
> Cheers,
> Thomas
>
>
>
> Von: "Skildum, Mathew" <mathew.skil...@aspect.com>
> An: "General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset."
> <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
> Datum: 04.11.2011 15:28
> Betreff: Re: [WiX-users] What happend to minor upgrade using wix
>
>
>
> The main problem I see here is your versioning scheme. MSI only supports
> the first three places in the version number (X.X.X) and ignores the
> fourth position. Any version changes need to take place in the first
> three positions for MSI to recognize a version change. For more
> information please refer to the MSI, and Microsoft, documentation on
> versions and use of versioning.
>
> You cannot compare what you do in legacy InstallShield (InstallScript) and
> MSI as they are two different install engines. InstallScript based
> installs use all four places in the version when it does version compares.
> When moving from InstallScript to MSI (WIX), or any install engine for
> that matter, you must be aware of the behavior differences and adjust your
> development rules accordingly.
>
> Mat Skildum
>
>
>
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