WIX suppress uninstall dialog when doing a major upgrade?

Question

In one installer version of our product, I've added a custom dialog (shown by a CA using session.Message()) that asks the user if he wants to keep some of his data, at uninstall.

The CA has the condition set to REMOVE="ALL" AND NOT WIX_UPGRADE_DETECTED. The dialog is correctly shown when doing a normal uninstall, but it also appears when removing the existing product, at a major upgrade. At that point, the installer hangs and it can only be closed from the Task Manager, resulting in an incorrect upgrade.

The installer version, containing the issue, has already been shipped. Is there something that we can include in the next installer version (that does a major upgrade), that solves the dialog issue when removing the existing product?

Answer 1

The property UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE is set in the older product as it is being uninstalled. WIX_UPGRADE_DETECTED is set in the incoming new upgrade setup when it detects.

A condition of REMOVE="ALL" AND NOT UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE seems to be what you want, showing the dialog during unstall but not when the uninstall is because of a major upgrade.

Answer 2

You need to fix the cached MSI of the original version. There shouldn't be any UI during a silent installation transaction. You'll need to make a copy of the original built MSI, modify it to not execute that custom action and then recache it using msiexec /I foo.msi REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus before you can do your major uprade. Or, tell your users to do an uninstall first. This is the reason you are supposed to test your servicing strategy before you go to production. MSI is like an airplane... there is not stop or go back button. You are always moving forward and you have to plan accordingly.