simple reinstall

I am just beginning with Setup projects. I created a setup project that works fine for my app. I as develop the app and release new versions, I would like to be able to install the new version directly over the old of by having the installer simply overwrite the files it installed in a previous version. As of now, it says another version is already installed and to use Add/Remove programs to remove it first. Is there a simple way around this

Windows Forms35

Select your Setup Project in the Solution Explorer and look at the PropertyGrid. There are two properties you can change to modify this behavior: DetectNewerInstalledVersion and RemovePreviousVersion.

I would suggest leaving the former as is and setting the latter to "True". Although to do the straight overwrite as you requested, set both properties to "False".

Thanks. I looked and looked for that.... Seems my Properties window was tabbed behind Solution explorer and never visible when Setup project was selected. If only everything were that simple!

I'm having the same problem. I'm using VS 2005 Pro. I've tried every possible combination of settings for the DetectNewerInstalledVersion and RemovePreviousVersion properties, but always get the message about having to use Add/Remove in the Control Panel
before the new version will install.

I resolved this. I was using a separate deploy solution to install my application. Although the application version had changed, I wasn't changing the version for the deploy solution, since it hadn't changed. But apparently you have to do so. I guess I'll just make the deploy version number the same as the app version.

I have the same problem you described and can't seem to figure it out.

How did you change the version for the deploy solution. Is your setup project part of your application's solution. Did you have to change the assemblyInfo file to match the Version number in the properties of the setup project

The version is a property of the project. If you select the setup project in the solution explorer, the version property is the last one in the properties window. It doesn't matter whether the setup project is part of your application's solution or not.

The version number for the setup project has no relation to the version of the application project. They can be the same or not, doesn't matter. All that matters is the version number of the setup project needs to change with each deployment.

Thanks. I was changing that property along with the product code when prompted with the RemovePreviousVersion set to true and it wasn't removing the old version's entry in the add/remove program (ARP) window. Once I rebooted it seemed to have fixed something on my PC and now the old version is getting removed from the ARP window.