Windows Installer Editor Reference
341
Upgrading Applications
Advanced Upgrade Version Details
To enter advanced upgrade version details
1. Access the Advanced Upgrade Version Details dialog box.
See
Creating a Patch File
on page 337.
2. Complete the dialog box and click OK:
Patch GUID
Each patch file is assigned a GUID, independent of product codes and upgrade
codes. The installation uses this to track which patches have been applied to an
application. To change this value, click Generate or paste another valid GUID
into this field.
See
About GUIDs
on page 548.
Previous Patch GUIDs to replace
This lists the GUIDs of previous patches that might have been applied to the
original installation. You can browse for additional patches and add their GUIDs
to this list. This list of GUIDs should not be delimited; do not enter spaces or
other characters between the GUIDs.
If any of these patches are found on the destination computer and are
registered with Windows Installer, they are unregistered and their patch
transforms are removed from the list of transforms associated with the
application. This lets you apply a patch to an original installation without having
applied any intermediate patches. Example: If this patch represents Service
Pack 2, setting this field lets end users upgrade to Service Pack 2 even if they
did not install Service Pack 1.
Read Product Codes to Upgrade from Target .MSI Files
By default, the product codes are read from the .MSI files of the previous
versions that you specified. If you do not want the product codes to be read
from the previous version .MSI files, clear this check box.
Additional Product Codes
If you cleared the previous check box, specify a product code or codes;
otherwise no valid targets exist for this patch file. If the previous check box is
marked, product codes you enter are added to the product codes that are read
from previous version .MSI files. The product codes must be in GUID format,
separated by semicolons.
C++ Symbol File Directories (Optional)
If your application is written in C++, you can make your patch files smaller by
specifying the directories where your Symbol and Object files are stored for the
upgrade version of your application.
Adding a Digital Signature to a Patch
¾
Windows Installer 3.0 or later only.
Use the Specify Digital Signature Settings page to add an Authenticode digital signature
to a patch file.
Frequently, updating an application requires more privileges than that of a standard
user, and only the administrator has sufficient privileges to run the update. This can
result in the application needing to be run with administrator privileges.