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I am having an MSI file which copies a set of dll from it source to destination folder. While running the MSI the dll are copied to the destination folder also the MSI is installed in the system. I can see that in ADD or REMOVE programs.

Whenever there is a change in dll, i copying the new dll and building the MSI again. When i tries to run MSI in the same system i am getting error "Another version is already. Uninstall that version and proceed" something like that.

What i am doing until now is uninstalling the old one (MSI) and installing the new one.

But i want the MSI to update the older dll with the latest dll from the MSI instead of uninstalling and installing again.

Thanks in advance.

Yan Sklyarenko
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Mohamed
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2 Answers2

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You can't just rerun the MSI to do an update. There's some background here, even if you are not using Visual Studio setups, and it's still relevant after all this time:

https://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/visual-studio/updates-to-setup-projects/

To replace a single file, build a patch, an msp file. To upgrade the entire setup, including that Dll then use the WiX majorupgrade element, and that may be a lot easier than building a patch, especially if your setup is small and doesn't take long to install. Increase the file version of the Dll to make sure it gets replaced.

PhilDW
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    For 99% of people I recommend going with Major Upgrades. FWIW I have an OpenSource project on CodePlex called IsWiX that helps to write WiX code by providing visual designers and project templates that go beyond what WiX does out of the box. The project templates are TFS ready in terms of versioning the MSI, dynamically generating a ProductCode and authoring a MajorUpgrade into the resulting MSI. I've used it many times for 1 day "hackathons" where we go from concept to production in 8 - 12 hours. – Christopher Painter Apr 29 '14 at 17:31
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welcome to StackOverflow - it seems to be your first post. I would read this thread if I were you to get an overview of how to implement a WIX major upgrade: How to implement WiX installer upgrade?. Here is another thread (didn't read this one through): How to get WiX major upgrade working?

A major upgrade is essentially an automatic uninstall of the existing version and reinstall of a new version. This is the least error prone update mechanism in Windows Installer. It is the recommended approach to try at first - it works well. A minor upgrade - which is upgrading the existing install, is generally more difficult to get right in the beginning. A number of technical restrictions apply. Here is a very good summary of what is required for a minor upgrade to work (as well as other details): http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msi/updates.htm

Check out this well known wix tutorial for upgrades and patches. And MSDN.

Community
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Stein Åsmul
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