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Two items in Control Panel


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slomicka

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Posted 26 July 2010 - 15:05

Greetings,

I have only been working with MSI’s a short time and have a problem I could use some help with. We have 40+ installs that install our suite. 39 work correctly and I am having a problem with 1. We are performing a major upgrade to the installations. I changed the Package Code, Version and Product Code and left the Upgrade Code alone. One the test machine we have “Version 1”. When we upgrade to “Version 2” the upgrade silently removes the existing installation and installs the new application. The only problem is that there are now two entries in Add/Remove programs. I used these exact same steps for the other 39 installs and they all remove the previous versions from Add/Remove program. The correct information is entered in the UpgradeTable. I have traced the install but I am not sure what I am looking for. Any help on how to get the previous version out of Control Panel would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Steve


Stefan Krueger

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Posted 26 July 2010 - 18:18

This would indicate that the uninstall of the old version failed or was incomplete. Des a log give any clues?

slomicka

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Posted 26 July 2010 - 20:05

I agree. I looked through the 6MEG log looking for the word error or exception. The word error is a very popular word. What other key word could I look for for some hint…

When I run the install for “Version 1” it does work correctly. When I run “Version 2” and expect it to auto-upgrade it does not remove the Version 1 entry from control panel. Again, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Stefan Krueger

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Posted 27 July 2010 - 11:37

Please check the result of actions FindRelatedProducts and RemoveExistingProducts. Is the Remove column in the Upgrade table of the new msi blank (it should be)?

slomicka

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Posted 27 July 2010 - 14:43

I'm currently using Wise. Hate it. Moving to InstallShield as quickly as possible. I had also already checked the UpgradeTable. The UpgradeCode is right. The minimum version is 3.9.3 well below the version I am trying to upgrade and the there is no maximum version. I will check the results of the two API's you suggest.

Glytzhkof

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Posted 28 July 2010 - 02:21

There are tools to help you analyze the ridiculously cumbersome MSI log files. I think Stefan has links on installsite.org, tools page. If you don't find one, I will find one for you, but right now I don't have the right computer.

I have used both Wise and Installshield. Different strenghts and weaknesses. In my opinion Wise is significantly better for reliability - much less bugs, but much poorer in features and flexibility.

Apart from regular update problems I somtimes experienced that Wise would fail to properly upgrade. For products that were not live I solved it by recompiling both setups with new product, package and upgrade guids (upgrade guid should normally match between versions - though other designs are possible).

There are many ways to debug upgrade problems. Apart from log files (which is the right solution in most cases), I sometimes quickly spread messageboxes across the installsequence that show property values as the setup progresses. This tends to narrow down the options.

Some upgrade problems off the top of my head (it's late):
* Errors in package, product or upgrade code. Product code or package code could be identical (latter is worse). Upgrade codes may not match (they normally should)
* Version numbers are the same, or only incremented in the 4th digit. Windows Installer only checks the first 3 digits: 1.0.0
* The property used in the Upgrade table has not been added to the SecureCustomProperties delimited list in the Property table.
* Sequenceing is messed up - uninstall attempt run before detection, standard actions could be missing.
* The setup to uninstall could fail silently and your setup could be configured to ignore and continue.
* Errors in conditions assigned to actions so they never run (rare)

That's all I can cough up at 3.21 at night :-).
Regards
-Stein Åsmul

VBScab

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Posted 28 July 2010 - 08:10

MSI logs cumbersome? Hah! Check out SMS/SCCM! LOL

FWIW, the WI log analyser can be obtained here. The WI SDK is no longer available as a separate item but the Platform SDK is packed full of useful tools and information anyway.

Edited by VBScab, 28 July 2010 - 08:12.

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slomicka

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Posted 28 July 2010 - 13:48

Thank you both for your replies. I'll let you know how i make out. Thanks again.

slomicka

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Posted 29 July 2010 - 21:33

Thanks for your help. I set the min version in the update table to 1.0.0 and set no max and it magically worked. thanks.