Never overwrite existing file

[desertkoala]

Is there anyway to achieve "Never overwrite existing file" in MSI Factory? I used this feature all the time back in Setup Factory 7 and I need it desperately to prevent a file from being overwritten. I don't want to rely upon system date. If the file exists, I never ever want to overwrite it.

Back in the day, you could simply choose the Overwrite pulldown list and get a nice set of choices such as never overwrite or ask user. I miss that.

Thanks

[Lorne]

There's probably a way to do it using a file or component search. (Project > Searches)

1. set a property based on the existing of that file (or the component that file belongs to) on the user's system
2. use that property in a condition for the component of the file in question

[desertkoala]

Why can't I just tell it to overwrite like back in SU7.0? This is really frustrating. I know have end users that are not getting the proper components installed.

[Adam]

Setup Factory 7.0 uses our own runtime so that is why you have full control. This product uses MSI so we are bound by the same rules that everyone must follow for MSI installs.

MSI Factory and Setup Factory 7.0 are very different products, you cannot compare them in this way.

Adam Kapilik

[Lorne]

Yep, MSI Factory builds a standard Windows Installer setup. Windows Installer is a Microsoft technology.

Like most things with Windows Installer it should be possible -- just not easy to do, or easy to understand.

Our goal with MSI Factory is to take as much of that pain as possible out of making MSI installers, without sacrificing any of the advanced features that make people choose/require MSI in the first place.

I think our approach is already easier than other tools, but there's still a long way to go, and a lot we can do to make it better.

I've logged an entry in our database to see if a "never overwrite" option is something we could automate. Maybe in a future build we can make MSI Factory take care of the details for you. It might not be possible, though -- sometimes these things have too many dangerous side effects to implement in such an automatic way. But we'll look into it. REF: 17575

(For example, anything involving conditions is tricky to automate because MSI has some strict limits on the length of condition strings, and the actual limits depend on when/where the conditions are used.)

[desertkoala]

Thank you - I still think Indigo Rose is a fantastic company.

[vasontsystems]

It's been awhile since the orginal thread on this was posted... but I just wanted to let you all know that I did in fact set a serach and condition for a particular file to check to see if it actually existed, if not, copy the file... and it worked perfectly. MSI Factory is easy and fun... Thanks Indigo...

Vasont