uninstalling a feature on update

[Dmitry Slabko]

Hello!

My installation project has two modes - full install and update. The full install has some features which are not included in the update, as they contain static files (like images). But when an update is installed it removes the previous full installation completely, even those features which are not included in the update package. I know that I can mark those features as 'permanent', but this is not a proper way, as they should be uninstalled when the program is uninstalled (but not updated).

Please, let me know if you may consider to make such an improvement - on update uninstall only those features which are included in the update package.

Best regards,
Dmitry

[Cosmin]

Hi,

Please note that you can use the Upgrades page to customize the upgrade rules. For the OLDPRODUCTS property (it is set when an older version is found on the machine), you can use the Upgrade Action tab of the "Edit Upgrade" dialog to set the features which will be upgraded. This way you can make sure that only the features you specified will be upgraded by the package.

Please, let me know if you may consider to make such an improvement - on update uninstall only those features which are included in the update package.

We will consider including this feature in a future version of Advanced Installer. Thank you for your suggestion.

Regards,
Cosmin

[Dmitry Slabko]

Thank you! Does 6.6 already include this change, or you are planning it for some next update?
Meanwhile I will check the backup/restore function.

Best regards,
Dmitry

[Cosmin]

Hi,

Please note that I posted on October 2nd and the 6.6 version was released on October 3rd. Therefore, the improvement was not included in the 6.6 version. Perhaps it will be included in a future version.

Regards,
Cosmin

[Dmitry Slabko]

Hi,

Any update on this?

Regards,
Dmitry

[Cosmin]

Hi,

Unfortunately this improvement was not requested by many users, so we didn't implement it (we worked on other features and improvements). Perhaps in a future version. For your package you can try using the workaround I suggested.

Regards,
Cosmin

[Dmitry Slabko]

Hello,

Using the 'Upgrades' feature requires a user to locate a previous installation package which is not convenient. Is there another way which does not require to keep the former installation packages?

Regards,
Dmitry

[Cosmin]

Hi,

I'm afraid that this is the only approach supported directly by Windows Installer. Unfortunately MSI packages don't offer many features for upgrading only parts of an installation.

Regards,
Cosmin

[Dmitry Slabko]

Hi,

Ok. The reason for requesting only a partial update for me is that we use a VB script to backup/restore the features which should not be removed on update, and on some end-user systems the VB script fails either due to an antivirus or a system configuration problem. In fact, I found on the Internet many reports about bugged VB script implementation in Windows Installer. We cannot ensure that those VB scripts will always run properly. Is there a way to perform the backup/restore tasks with something else than VB script?

Regards,
Dmitry

[Cosmin]

Hi,

Is there a way to perform the backup/restore tasks with something else than VB script?

Yes, you can use C++ DLL or EXE custom actions. You can find a sample for a C++ DLL custom action here.

Regards,
Cosmin

[Dmitry Slabko]

Thank you for the info. I believe, I can as well use Delphi/Win32 to create a DLL.

Regards,
Dmitry