Uninstall a Previous Application When Upgrading an Application with Setups Created in VS.NET
Uninstall a Previous Application Installation When
Upgrading an Application with Setups Created in VS.NET - The Code Project -
.NET
"How to uninstall a previous application install during an upgrade with VS.NET created setups is a question that frequently appears in the forums. No matter what options you select in the VS IDE when you create a new setup for an upgraded application, it still never uninstalls the existing application!
One thing that most developers are not aware of is how to properly use the Update Code, which is what triggers an uninstall of a previous version. Windows Installer includes the capability to find and uninstall previous versions of an application. But there are some steps required that are not well documented in VS.NET to make this happen...
"How to uninstall a previous application install during an upgrade with VS.NET created setups is a question that frequently appears in the forums. No matter what options you select in the VS IDE when you create a new setup for an upgraded application, it still never uninstalls the existing application!
One thing that most developers are not aware of is how to properly use the Update Code, which is what triggers an uninstall of a previous version. Windows Installer includes the capability to find and uninstall previous versions of an application. But there are some steps required that are not well documented in VS.NET to make this happen...
Source: Uninstall a Previous Application When Upgrading an Application with Setups Created in VS.NET
The uninstall / install routine is one thing that's always bugged me about the free / open source VS.NET goodies with MSI installs (IMHO Instant Blogger, RSSBandit, etc.) Of course, you can just go with something like Inno Setup , which does a pretty nice job with upgrades.