Can't upgrade with 4-part product versions

[phaedrus30]

Hi there,

We are experiencing some problems getting upgrades to work.

Our product version scheme uses 4 parts, Major.Minor.Build.Revision. The Build number is the number of days since an epoch date, and the Revision is the sequence number of a build on that day., Eg. 15.1.294.2

We disallow side-by-side updates, so we expect subsequent builds on the same day to perform an upgrade, exactly as they would if they had come from different days (which works fine). However, these packages install over the top of existing files without uninstalling the previous versions first, leading to corrupt configuration and broken applications.

I'm aware that changes in the 4th part of a product version number is not seen as a new version by Advanced Installer - I tried to work around this by using the command line option /SetProductCode to always update the product code regardless of how the product version is changing between builds, but this doesn't work - I can see that the product code is changing as expected, but this doesn't trigger the expected upgrade workflow.

Is there a way to workaround this problem? Is there any way that I can force an upgrade even if only the 4th part of the product version is changing?

Changing the way our product versions work to only use 3 parts would be a major headache for us, so we need to exhaust all other options first.

Thanks,

Sam

[Dan]

Hi Sam,

However, these packages install over the top of existing files without uninstalling the previous versions first, leading to corrupt configuration and broken applications.

Indeed, this is happening because the forth field of the product version is used.
Note that Windows Installer uses only the first three fields of the Product Version. If you include a fourth field in the product version, the installer ignores it.
For details, please check the ProductVersion article.

However, the previous installed version can still be removed, although only the fourth field from the product version is increased, by following these steps:

• Go to the Upgrades page and enable the Customize Advanced Installer upgrade rules option;
• Double-click on the Advanced Installer rule that is related to the [OLDPRODUCTS] property;
• In the Product Info tab, enable the Include maximum version in range option and click OK;

Please note that you need to generate manually a new ProductCode in the Product IDs Tab from the Product Details page each time you increase forth field of the ProductVersion.

If you have other questions, please let us know.

Best regards,
Dan

[phaedrus30]

Thanks, that's very helpful.

[Dan]

You're welcome,

If you have other questions, please let us know.

Best regards,
Dan