Installshield not replacing files during minor upgrade

Question

I have an installshield installer for my application. Now I create a minor upgrade for the application and some of the files in some of my components are changed. Unfortunately after the minor upgrade the files are not replaced but are left with their old contents. These are text files so it is very easy to verify that. I have also explicitly checked always overwrite in the properties for each of the files I try to overwrite during the upgrade.

I am tired of creating custom actions to do what installshield is supposed to do. Do you have any idea why this is happening and how can I force installshield to overwrite these files?

I am using installshield 2008 and really, really, really wished I had an option to change that.

Answer 1

Not to be rude, but this is a training issue not a tools issue. Windows Installer, the underlying technology, is extremely explicit in how it operates with regard to the Component Rules and the File Versioning Rules. If it's not working it's because you've implemented it wrong. If you are writing custom actions to get around it, that clearly demonstrates you do not understand what you are doing and are creating hacks to circumvent MSI.

Now I don't have a copy of your FOO.msi (v1) and FOO.msi (v1.1) or the installer log from the upgrade so your question is unanswerable beyond giving you advice to research such topics as what components, keyfiles and companion files are, how file costing / versioning works, how major and minor upgrades work and then applying that knowledge to your own installer.

Yes, this is obscure, often pedantic stuff. But it's at the core of how MSI works and you really need to understand it. Once you do, it gets much, much easier. Trust me, I've been there.