CODEWITHSUNDEEP
visual-studioinstallationwixupgrade
aherrick
aherrick

Reputation: 20169

WIX UI Installer Project in Visual Studio, Now Mange Updates?

I have a fresh WIX UI Install project in VS which compiles down into an MSI. Everything is working great with it.

It installs/uninstalls the files I want successfully. For example, it drops 3 DLLs into a Program Files folder, installs a Windows Service, and GAC's a DLL.

Now let's say I install on this in a given environment. Then one of our DLLs change and we need to upgrade this install without affecting other files already installed (such as the service) So my thought would be I would need a patch/upgrade MSI that would target that one DLL and just overwrite that particular file.

What is the simplest way to accomplish this? Do I need VS projects essentially for each patch/update MSI? Below is my current 2 WIX related projects (installer + custom action)

enter image description here

Upvotes: 3

Views: 292

Answers (1)

Cosmin
Cosmin

Reputation: 21416

For updating just the DLL a patch is recommended. Visual Studio doesn't support patches, but you can try using WiX: http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix2/patch_building.htm

Please note that patches have some restrictions: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367850(VS.85).aspx

A MSI which overwrites just one file is a bad mistake because you are not using the Windows Installer update mechanism.

If you want a MSI, it will have to be a major upgrade. A major upgrade will automatically uninstall the old version before installing the current one.

Upvotes: 5

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