Cross-Link: Similar answer and short version. And the older: I screwed up, how can I uninstall my program? Suppress Dialog: If that dialog is shown without a proper condition then no, you can not suppress it outright, but there are many workarounds. See list of “fixes” below. Stuck Uninstalls: First some comments on stuck uninstalls … Read more
UPDATE: Here is a list to help debug failing major upgrades by identifying the most common problems: Common causes of failed major upgrades Major Upgrade – “The Old, Manual Way” I guess you are hitting an oddity that may not be handled entirely as expected by the WiX MajorUpgrade element by combining the auto-generated product … Read more
Phil has already answered. I’ll just post what I wrote a few hours ago before heading out. The conditions you specify look pretty good to me. Maybe I’ll do a quick review of things that are likely to cause confusion – such as what custom actions run when? Major Upgrades: A major upgrade is really … Read more
If you invoke from Powershell, you should use the call operator & This should then also work with parameters enclosed in quotes: & msiexec /i `”My Installer.msi`” /quiet JREPATH=`”c:\BLA BLA`”
Windows Installer is a deployment technology, its job is to install the specified files and registry settings and keep them in the specified install locations and to ensure they are the right versions – self-repair or resiliency is a mechanism to that end. Its operation conflicts with a developer’s need to exchange files on the … Read more
The following “discussion” got a little out of hand. But I will leave it here as an explanation for people who research differences experienced between silent mode and interactive mode installs. Yes, the short answer is that you can indeed see different installation or uninstallation behavior depending on how you invoke the (un)install. This has … Read more
Restart Manager: The Restart Manager Feature of Windows (Installer) (middle page) is designed to help restart applications automatically during installation rather than requiring a reboot. This feature should always be used to try to eliminate reboot requirements. Only in very special circumstances should a reboot be really required. Technical Crash Course: This is a technical … Read more
Self-Repair, Simple & Short Explanation: Why does the MSI installer reconfigure if I delete a file? General WiX / MSI Advice: This self-repair piece was split from the original answer on general MSI problems: How do I avoid common design flaws in my WiX / MSI deployment solution? Short Summary I keep trying to write … Read more
You should be able to use the /quiet or /qn options with msiexec to perform a silent install. MSI packages export public properties, which you can set with the PROPERTY=value syntax on the end of the msiexec parameters. For example, this command installs a package with no UI and no reboot, with a log and … Read more
It depends what you mean by “upgrade” but there is no such thing as a major upgrade where the ProductCode stays the same. Keeping it the same is not a constraint, it’s against what a major upgrade does. You should say why you believe it’s a constraint to keep it the same, and if you … Read more