How to implement WiX installer upgrade?

installation wix windows-installer
Dror Helper picture Dror Helper · Sep 22, 2008 · Viewed 123.3k times · Source

At work we use WiX for building installation packages. We want that installation of product X would result in uninstall of the previous version of that product on that machine.

I've read on several places on the Internet about a major upgrade but couldn't get it to work. Can anyone please specify the exact steps that I need to take to add uninstall previous version feature to WiX?

Answer

Dror Helper picture Dror Helper · Sep 22, 2008

Finally I found a solution - I'm posting it here for other people who might have the same problem (all 5 of you):

  • Change the product ID to *

  • Under product add The following:

    <Property Id="PREVIOUSVERSIONSINSTALLED" Secure="yes" />
<Upgrade Id="YOUR_GUID">  
   <UpgradeVersion
      Minimum="1.0.0.0" Maximum="99.0.0.0"
      Property="PREVIOUSVERSIONSINSTALLED"
      IncludeMinimum="yes" IncludeMaximum="no" />
</Upgrade>

  • Under InstallExecuteSequence add:

    <RemoveExistingProducts Before="InstallInitialize" />

From now on whenever I install the product it removed previous installed versions.

Note: replace upgrade Id with your own GUID

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