MSI upgrade using Visual Studio 2010

Question

I have a solution with .NET projects and a setup project(Visual Studio Installer 2010). My previous version of the same project was 1.7.9 and the new version is 1.8.4. I also create a shortcut on the desktop to one application in my MSI. I changed all the versions in the assemblyinfo.cs and also changed the product version in the Setup Project, the product code got changed automatically and the upgrade code is the same. The problem I'm facing is that the Targetdir is updated with 1.8.4 files. But on the desktop I see 2 shortcuts (1.7.9 & 1.8.4) and in control panel I see two versions of the same application. I have set the RemovePreviousVersion flag to true and also set the DetectNewerVersion to true. Can someone please help me out with this? After changing the assemblyinfo file why isn't it upgrading properly?

Answer 1

Visual Studio Setup Projects are a deprecated feature that hasn't seen any love since before Visual Studio 2008 was released. I understand it's a feature that ships with Visual Studio all the way up to 2010, but it's probably a much better idea to switch to another product, such as WiX (free and open source), NullSoft Installer a 3rd party commercial solution.

From what I gather, you did the correct things building your installer and setting up the configuration. You might want to check that the previous installer really has the same GUID you're expecting it to have.