Major upgrade

A major upgrade is a full installation package that removes any older versions of the same product. To create one, you'll need to do the following:

• Change the Product element's Id to a new GUID

• Increment the Product element's Version

• Add an Upgrade element that defines which older versions to remove

• Add the RemoveExistingProducts standard action to the InstallExecuteSequence

We'll go over each step. Before we get to that, let's make an MSI that will install the "old" software—the software to update. You can use the following markup in a new WiX project, which you can call "OldInstaller". Notice that the Product element's Version is "1.0.0.0". Also, take notice of the Product's Id and UpgradeCode, as these will come into play later.

You may recall that you can use an asterisk (*) for Id and WiX will choose a new GUID for you each time you compile the project. You can do that here, if you choose to. You would not want to do that, because later on when we're creating a minor upgrade...