How to launch Maintenance mode--"Change, Repair, or Remove installation" dialog in WIX

Ray picture Ray · Dec 23, 2009 · Viewed 8.7k times · Source

I have changed the wix tutorial codes from here http://www.tramontana.co.hu/wix/ to make my own installer.

There is no problem when I run the installer to setup my application. But when I run the the installer again, a window jumped out said "Another version of this prodcut is already installed..."

But in the sample, there should be a Maintenance mode, "change, repair or remove installation" dialog when running the installer after the program has already been installed.

I am using the WixUI_Mondo, I think it provides the maintenance mode automatically, any idea how to launch it?

Answer

Wim Coenen picture Wim Coenen · Dec 24, 2009

But when I run the the installer again, a window jumped out and said "Another version of this product is already installed..."

This is the error you get when you rebuild your installer with the exact same product ID, but different package ID and then run it again.

If you run the original MSI file it should go to maintenance mode.

If you don't have the original MSI anymore, you can still uninstall your product via add/remove programs. This is possible because Windows Installer caches MSI files with a random name under c:\windows\installer\.

Unless you need to support fine-grained upgrade scenarios (i.e. patching), I recommend you set the product ID to "*" and implement major upgrades as described in the wix help topic How to: Implement a Major Upgrade in your Installer.