[wix-users] Correct way to patch a CUSTOMACTION conditional

[Philip Cheeseman]

We recently replaced our old Installshield installer with a WIX based one with a bootstrapper (Bundle) to handle prerequisites.

I tested upgrading from the various versions of the Installshield installer and all was good. I mistakenly forgot to test upgrading WIX to WIX and therefore got our install custom action conditional wrong. It is:
<Custom Action="UninstallCustomAction" Before="InstallInitialize">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

When it should be:
<Custom Action="UninstallCustomAction" Before="InstallInitialize">REMOVE="ALL" AND NOT UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE</Custom>

This results in some code to clean up installed databases offering to run on upgrade which is risky if the user clicks the wrong option and loses data. What is the correct tech to use to patch this?

I have tried using ORCA to edit the internal MSI but the PCP it generates cannot be parsed by msimsp.exe

(Log extract: ERROR: The .pcp file 'D:\msi\patched.pcp' is invalid.)

I have tried to use a transform but I'm unclear how I target this against the existing msi during the upgrade (Unless I can target against the installing MSI and it passed on but not sure if this is possible in a bundle?).

I have also tried a minor upgrade but that is prevented by our Upgrade code using AllowSameVersionUpgrades=no (We've never done a minor upgrade before):
<MajorUpgrade AllowDowngrades="no" AllowSameVersionUpgrades="no" DowngradeErrorMessage="Unable to downgrade product" Schedule="afterInstallValidate" />

I'm not sure if I've just missed something with each of these attempts or what I'm trying to do just isn't possible? I just want to make sure I go down the right path rather than keep following the wrong one. I've spent so long googling this one when I can't believe I'm the only person who can have done this.

Thanks in advance.

Phil

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