[wix-users] Products & Releases

[Todd Hoatson]

I'm still a bit new to WiX, and I'm still a bit confused about ProductCode
& UpgradeCode.  I read the following in WiX 3.6: A Developer's Guide to
Windows Installer XML, Chapter 1. Getting Started:

"The final attribute to consider is UpgradeCode. This should be set to a
GUID and will identify your product across releases. It remains constant
for a product line, even among different product versions. Think: Microsoft
Office 2007 and Office 2010. Both would have the same UpgradeCode.
Therefore, it should stay the same even when the ProductCode and Version
change."

So UpgradeCode should stay the same across versions of the product, whereas
ProductCode should change with each major upgrade.  Hmmm... that seems
exactly backward.  Am I missing something?

Anyway, we would like our installer to uninstall prior installs of the same
major version, i.e. minor versions would replace the prior install, but NOT
uninstall prior installs of a different major version.  So, for example,
Version 6 would exist side-by-side with version 5, until the user is
satisfied that all is working well.  (I have other software on my machine
that does this, so I know it's possible...)

Currently, the installer we have created will automatically uninstall the
prior major version.  How do we set up the GUIDs & WiX code to keep this
from happening?

thanks!
Todd Hoatson
Mobile: 763-291-3312
Email:   todd.hoatson at gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/toddhoatson