Wise For Visual Studio Net 1.0

Platform SDK MSI Shared components with different versions Windows ...

Hello all, I have the following scenario: * Product A installs a component that contains foo.dll (version 1.0.0.0) to folder Bar * Product B installs a component that contains foo.dll (version 2.0.0.0) to the same folder. * Both components have the same GUID + First I install Product A ==> foo.dll (version 1.0.0.0) is installed to folder Bar + Now I install Product B ==> foo.dll (version 2.0.0.0) replaces version 1.0.0.0 in folder Bar + Now I uninstall Product B ==> foo.dll (version 2.0.0.0) remains in folder Bar (even if I repair the installation of Product A it will still remain version 2.0.0.0) Is there a way to tell MSI to restore foo.dll back to version 1.0.0.0 in this case? Thanks in advance, Yonathan John responded with hi Yonathan, Since the components have the same name and GUID, they represent the same component for Windows Installer. This means that Windows Installer will use a reference count for it: - after installing A the reference count is 1 and version 1.0.0.0 is installed - after installing B the reference count is 2; since version 2.0.0.0 is higher than 1.0.0.0, the original file is overwritten by the updated version - when uninstalling A or B, the reference count becomes 1; since the count is not 0, the component is ignored so the file is left on disk If you want to restore the original version when uninstalling B, the only solution is to use custom actions in the product B installer: - during install use a custom action to backup version 1.0.0.0 (copy the file in a backup folder); it should run at the beginning, before overwriting the original file - during uninstall use another custom action to restore version 1.0.0.0 (copy the file from the backup folder to installation folder) Regards, John -- http://www.setupanddeployment.com/ Kalle Olavi Niemitalo said but if another product C also contains version 2.0.0.0, and the user does this: - installs A (MSI installs 1.0.0.0) - installs B (custom action backs up 1.0.0.0; MSI installs 2.0.0.0) - installs C (MSI keeps 2.0.0.0) - uninstalls B (MSI keeps 2.0.0.0; custom action restores 1.0.0.0) then the wrong version will be left installed. And if product C is released after product B, B will not recognize it specifically. The products might cooperate via some file or registry key though, keeping track of which products include which versions and where the older versions have been backed up.

Pro Visual Studio.Net

Foundations of Microsoft Expression Web, The Basics and Beyond

Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 for developers

Introduction to ASP.Net

Personal computer magazine