How to implement WiX installer upgrade?

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12

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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?

Animadversion answered 22/9, 2008 at 10:34 Comment(0)

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218

In the newest versions (from the 3.5.1315.0 beta), you can use the MajorUpgrade element instead of using your own.

For example, we use this code to do automatic upgrades. It prevents downgrades, giving a localised error message, and also prevents upgrading an already existing identical version (i.e. only lower versions are upgraded):

<MajorUpgrade
    AllowDowngrades="no" DowngradeErrorMessage="!(loc.NewerVersionInstalled)"
    AllowSameVersionUpgrades="no"
    />

Petrinapetrine answered 26/8, 2010 at 13:57 Comment(12)

Bob Arnson's blog post about this provides a lot of nice information. – Rufous 26/7, 2012 at 18:15

Note: Not documented anywhere, but the "<MajorUpgrade>" element must be placed after <Package>. Otherwise, candle gives the following error: "error CNDL0107 : Schema validation failed with the following error at line 1, column 473: The element 'Product' in namespace 'schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi' has invalid child element 'MajorUpgrade' in namespace 'schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi'. List of possible elements expected: 'Package'.". – Darton 31/1, 2013 at 11:39

+1 This answer needs to receive as many upvotes as possible; it's very tempting to go with an answer that has 5x the upvotes, but uses older approaches. – Kraken 20/2, 2014 at 16:59

Good point. I've added an example so that people don't ignore it just because it doesn't have one! – Petrinapetrine 21/2, 2014 at 13:22

Just want to point out you don't need to specify AllowDowngrades or AllowSameVersionUpgrades. They default to no already. – Prizewinner 15/5, 2015 at 14:17

True. I wanted it to be obvious to anyone else reading my particular piece of code, but of course that won't be the case for everyone! – Petrinapetrine 20/5, 2015 at 7:22

I've changed it to the accepted answer since it's better than my original findings – Animadversion 29/9, 2015 at 9:59

Hopefully this won't resurrect an old thread, but I feel a couple of additional things could be mentioned for creating a "newer" version: 1) You need to increment one of the first three digits of the "Product Version" attribute. 2) Change the GUID in "Product UpgradeCode". 3) Put an actual GUID in "Package Id" attribute (as opposed to the recommended asterisk), and keep that constant across versions. WIX coughs up a huge warning for the GUID, but it won't work as an upgrade otherwise. – Bastard 24/12, 2018 at 19:46

My previous comment is wrong - ignore it. What I described does not complain when installing, it doesn't upgrade like I thought. Put an asterisk in "Product Id". Put an actual GUID in "Product UpgradeCode" - and NEVER change this. Put an asterisk in "Package Id". Finally, when you increment the numbers in "Product Version", it'll do an actual update. – Bastard 24/12, 2018 at 21:57

Tried this and got "another version of this product is already installed" – Buhr 15/7, 2020 at 12:16

Same as AriesConnolly, another version of this product is already installed error – Epicontinental 2/9, 2020 at 13:12

My understanding is that you get that error when you've recompiled your setup program without increasing the version number. You can set the AllowSameVersionUpgrades attribute to yes, but that comes with its own problems... – Petrinapetrine 10/9, 2020 at 11:16

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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

Animadversion answered 22/9, 2008 at 13:3 Comment(25)

Seems this question is much more popular then I thought – Animadversion 16/2, 2009 at 13:50

yes, learning WiX is like trying to figure out the obscure incantations that someone decided 'made sense' to perform a simple action. Kind of like UNIX. – Fumarole 25/3, 2009 at 0:44

Hm, I suspect that I shouldn't use that particular GUID in the "Upgrade Id=", but will have to match it so something else. But what? – Caduceus 6/4, 2009 at 21:27

Also you may have to tweak the UpgradeVersion Min and max - e.g. If your current version is less than 1.0 – Caduceus 6/4, 2009 at 21:29

Also, what exactly does "Change the product ID to *" do? Does it generate a new product Id each time? Are there consequences to your product not having a fixed Id any more? - it sounds like overkill. – Caduceus 7/4, 2009 at 8:58

@Caduceus - yes using * will cause it to generate a new product ID each time. I found that for the "automatic upgrade" to work I need a new product Id for each version and this is the simplest way to do so – Animadversion 7/4, 2009 at 10:50

We need to know the ID so generate (manually) a new ID for each public release. Using the same ID for all internal betas. Works OK but you can't autoupgrade between betas which is OK for us – Freshet 7/4, 2009 at 10:56

@Antony, @Dror Helper: I'm pretty sure you should not be using "*" to generate a new GUID here. The GUID inside (Upgrade Id="") should be hard-coded and fixed, and it should match the GUID in your (Product UpgradeCode="") attribute. – Ruffina 30/9, 2009 at 11:32

By which I mean, don't use "*" in the upgrade Id, but do, of course use it in the product Id as Dror intended. – Ruffina 30/9, 2009 at 12:39

note that this will remove any version installed, even if it is newer than the one you are trying to install – Gelatinoid 2/12, 2009 at 21:38

I think you should probably edit your example there to NOT have an actual GUID. I'm sure people will copy-and-paste that and use it verbatim. Maybe use "YOUR-PRODUCT'S-UPGRADECODE-GUID-HERE"? – Registered 5/2, 2010 at 19:54

There is bug in your example. MSI's ProductVersion only supports three version fields; therefore the fourth field will not be compared at all. See the note under VersionMin and VersionMax in msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372379(VS.85).aspx – Piglet 26/8, 2010 at 18:50

For wix2, Product ID should be "????????-????-????-????-????????????" instead of "*" – Piglet 26/8, 2010 at 19:9

Although the upgrade seems to work using the method above, in "Add Remove Programs" I still see the old version (and of course the new one). Any ideas why that happens and how I can really delete the old version? – Delwyn 2/11, 2010 at 8:58

Using this technique, do I still need to change the UpgradeCode between releases? – Delwyn 2/11, 2010 at 9:5

This helped me too, turns out the PREVIOUSVERSIONSINSTALLED is really important, even though nothing appears to be using the property... – Inexistent 2/6, 2011 at 5:57

I've done exactly what was suggested, but this isn't working for me. If I run my newer install, it simply ignores the existing installation and installs a fresh copy. What kind of things might I be missing? – Biologist 4/8, 2011 at 6:1

I don't seem to have an InstallExecuteSequence element... (scratching head). – Pagano 24/4, 2012 at 20:40

@Pagano Are you sure you're placing InstallExecuteSequence in the right parent? I've made that mistake a few times already – Leakey 30/4, 2012 at 12:22

Why isn't there a "DontCareJustCopyTheFiles" element? – Antigorite 17/12, 2013 at 15:56

@DrorHelper Is it possible to remove(uninstall) more than one product using wix during the installation of msi created by wix. Plese look into my SO question and guide me #26863794 – Doth 16/11, 2014 at 14:53

I'm not sure, I haven't done WIX in a while - I think you should write a question instead of a comment so that other users can help you. – Animadversion 18/11, 2014 at 7:11

I assure you @mmr, packaging on Linux is a lot simpler. – Rundle 20/9, 2015 at 18:36

Please note that this solution won't work if WIX installer has multiple project files and if you are trying to build the project with msbuild. – Commonweal 28/7, 2016 at 6:27

@Fumarole I wish there was an option to bookmark comments. WiX is driving me nuts for several days now and all I want to implement is a simple upgrade scenario. – Witha 17/5, 2022 at 5:5

P

218

In the newest versions (from the 3.5.1315.0 beta), you can use the MajorUpgrade element instead of using your own.

For example, we use this code to do automatic upgrades. It prevents downgrades, giving a localised error message, and also prevents upgrading an already existing identical version (i.e. only lower versions are upgraded):

<MajorUpgrade
    AllowDowngrades="no" DowngradeErrorMessage="!(loc.NewerVersionInstalled)"
    AllowSameVersionUpgrades="no"
    />