Installer - always install (overwrite)

[sigu]

Hi,

My question is if I can set an option on my installer so that it always makes an installation.

If I make an installation of my program and later want to make a reinstallation I get the error that an Installation of this program already exists.

I want to set an option on my installer so that it always makes an installation, an overwrite.

The reason is if an installation has been made, someone deleted all files (not an uninstallation) then its impossible to install the software again.

Can I set some kind of property in setup.ini?

Best regards,

Simon

[Andrey_Dmitriev]

Hi, Simon,

Unfortunately "Repair" function is missing for LabVIEW-generated installer.

When installer with same version will be started, then you will get message: "No software will be installed or removed".

So, for reinstall you can:

a) increase version of installer, then install it over.

b) uninstall your software from control panel, and then install again

c) call msiexec manually for your product: "msiexec /f  install.msi" (located in \Volume\bin\dp\install.msi)

I don't know other way, probably someone else?

best regards,

Andrey.

[daveTW]

Hi Simon,
in LV 6.1 (and probably 7) the behaviour was that the installer removed a present installation of the same program if found. If no installation was found, it was installed. It worked like an On/Off switch. You could fix this problem by generating a new CSLID in the "Create Installer" Dialog. Then an new ID in the format {S-1234-5678-...} was created and at installation the old program files could be overwritten.
In LV8 the dialog for creating an installer doesn't show you that ID, though it is there (saved in the .lvproj- file). You force LabView to create a new one by duplicating the existing installer item in the project window (via context menu). So you don't lose your current installer settings and have another installer to make the changes you want.
Hope this helps,
greets, Dave

[sigu]

Thank you for your replies.

daveTW

I know that I can make an new installation by duplicating my installer so it generates a new key.

The problem is when I have sent out my software to a customer who installs the software, and the for some unknown reason deletes his files (not using the uninstaller).

When this happens he can not uninstall the software, and if he doesn't uninstall the software he can not reinstall the software.

The problem is that it takes me some time to sent him a new installer that has a higer version number.

So can I in some way edit my setup.ini so that I can make reinstallation?

Best regards,

Simon

[sigu]

Hi again,

Thanks for your help.

I lied when I told you that I didn't work to make an uninstallation 😛

Or to be correct belived in my customer 😛

It seems that it was to hard for the customer to find the uninstaller in add/remove programs.

So I will us the "c) call msiexec manually for your product: "msiexec /f  install.msi" (located in \Volume\bin\dp\install.msi)" as you described Andrey.
It seems to work like the old labview 7.11 installer application. So it's easy to make an uninstallation.

Thank you again.

Best regards,
Simon

[daveTW]

Hi Simon,
you were a bit faster than me.
So I renamed the EXE of my installation (assuming, this is the same than deleting the file) and uninstalled the program via the Software Uninstall- panel. Everything worked fine without any error announcement. The renamed file was still there, so was the program folder. It was then no problem to reinstall the program again.
greets, Dave

[Andrey_Dmitriev]

Hi, Dave,

you wrote: "...You could fix this problem by generating a new CSLID in the "Create Installer" Dialog. Then an new ID in the format {S-1234-5678-...} was created and at installation the old program files could be overwritten..."

sure, this will work too, but I guess, you will get two instances of the application in the "Installed Software List" in the Control Panel in this case.

Andrey.

[daveTW]

Hi Andrey,
this is true, but it is no problem to deinstall both of them. In the scenario I described earlier it worked well and both the entries disappeared from the Software Panel.
Perhaps because of the renamed file which forced the uninstall routine to keep the directory there, the second uninstall was happy to find the directory, though there weren't any files to delete in it (only one unknown file, the renamed one).
greets, Dave