Upgrading MSI with newer build number (fourth version part)

[manuellanthaler]

Question

Hi, as I’ve already found out, Windows Installer only considers the first three parts of the version number during upgrade scenarios.
In our company’s versioning scheme, we use MAJOR.MINOR.REVISION.BUILD, where BUILD is an auto-incremented value generated by the build server. It’s typically used only for internal development builds, while the REVISION is incremented for official releases.

However, we need a way to upgrade an MSI when only the BUILD number is newer. Since the <UpgradeVersion> element doesn’t support this, I wanted to ask if anyone has implemented a reliable custom solution for handling such cases.

Thanks in advance!
Manuel

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[robmen]

You're definitely fighting against the Windows Installer's design. I've heard some people try to do this by allowing same version upgrades. If you want "reliable" then I'd recommend adapting to the (somewhat unfortunate) design decision the Windows Installer requires.