How to Automatically Upgrade Two Different Products into a Single Unified Installer?

[leeroy]

Hello,

We currently distribute two separate variants of our application, each packaged using Advanced Installer. Each variant has its own distinct UpgradeCode, meaning that they behave as separate products when users perform upgrades via the Advanced Installer updater.

This year, we've merged both variants into a single unified product. We'd like users to seamlessly upgrade from either of the old products to the new unified one without having to uninstall manually or perform complex steps.

We have created an installer that, when run manually, successfully upgrades either variant to the unified product via the upgrade code entry in "Application Upgrades." However, we have encountered issues with the actual updater; specifically, it produces an error when attempting to automatically perform the upgrade.

Could someone please clarify the recommended approach to achieve this scenario with Advanced Installer?

Specifically, Is it possible to configure the unified installer updater to detect and automatically upgrade both previous products?

Thanks in advance for your guidance!

[Catalin]

Hello,

Could you please give me some more details about what error you are getting while doing the update?

I think that most likely the error is related to the after install check that is done by the updater, so if the error is something like "the update was not installed correctly" (despite it actually being installed), then this might be the case.

Best regards,
Catalin

[leeroy]

Hi Catalin,

I don't know if I can provide further details. The updater.log doesn't yield any thing useful it seems and it just fails to upgrade. If I run the downloaded update manually it is fine.

Code: Select all

<< Advanced Installer (x86) Log >>
OS Version: 11.0.26100 SP0 (workstation) [x64]
CPU: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13950HX

# 2025-03-27 11-49-35 [PID=34852|Thread=44112]                                                                          |		Service running from path: "C:\Program Files\XXXXXX\updater.exe" /runservice
# 2025-03-27 11-49-35 [PID=34852|Thread=44112]                                                                          |		LegacyIpcObjectBaseName: 
# 2025-03-27 11-49-35 [PID=34852|Thread=44112]                                                                          |		IPC Object name base: 08A6E6A1_981C_4EB6_9C7D_98645CC58028
# 2025-03-27 11-49-35 [PID=34852|Thread=44112]                                                                          |		WaitForServerToBecomeReady Global\evt3_XXXXXXXX started
# 2025-03-27 11-49-35 [PID=34852|Thread=44112]                                                                          |		Server ready event Global\evt3_XXXXXXXX created
# 2025-03-27 11-49-36 [PID=34852|Thread=44112]                                                                          |		Server ready event is signaled
# 2025-03-27 11-49-36 [PID=34852|Thread=44112]                                                                          |		VerifySignatureTrust returnned: 0

The Installed path is different, but I reference the upgrade codes in the installer. I have also tried either registry value in the updater "Update Installed Detection" and still fails.

[Catalin]

Hello Lee,

If despite the error, you go to Control Panel, does the new version appear there?

If so, if you go under the "Update Installed Detection" tab and check the "Do not try to detect if the update was installed", do you encounter the same behavior?

Screenshot_4.png (29.01 KiB) Viewed 10472 times

Best regards,
Catalin

[leeroy]

We figured this out. There was a failure in the install process that wasn't logged, but after review we corrected that issue and all appears well now.

[Catalin]

Hello Lee,

Thank you for your followup on this!

Glad to hear everything is working as expected now.

Best regards,
Catalin