Hello,
This is a more detailed follow-up to my previous post „OEM-stamped software - installation and updates“.
I am using the AutoCAD OEM Install Wizard to create installations for our AutoCAD OEM based application G6CAD.
I am trying to understand the intended version/update behavior of the ODIS installer.
When I create a new release of G6CAD while keeping the same ProductGuid in the Install Wizard, ODIS detects the existing installation and reports that the product is already installed. Therefore, until now I have generated a new ProductGuid for each G6CAD release.
This allows the new version to be installed over the existing installation and, importantly, preserves the user’s AutoCAD/OEM settings. However, every release is then registered as a separate product/package in ODIS. After several updates, Windows “Installed apps” contains multiple G6CAD entries and ODIS keeps separate metadata/uninstall information for the previous installations.
A complete uninstall before installing the new release would avoid these duplicate entries, but this is not a good solution for us because uninstalling G6CAD also removes current-user AutoCAD/OEM settings.
I compared the manifests generated by the OEM Install Wizard with Autodesk’s own AutoCAD OEM base installation and an official AutoCAD OEM update. In Autodesk’s update, the package identities appear to follow an update relationship: some UPI2 values change for the new version, while the corresponding UpgradeCode and ConstantId values remain unchanged. The OEM Install Wizard, however, generates our G6CAD package with the ProductGuid used as both the package UPI2 and package UpgradeCode.
So my main question is:
What is the officially intended way to create an update for an AutoCAD OEM application using the OEM Install Wizard/ODIS?
Ideally, an update should:
- replace/update the existing G6CAD installation rather than create another independent ODIS registration;
- preserve the existing current-user AutoCAD/OEM settings;
- leave only one valid uninstall entry for the current G6CAD installation.
Is changing the ProductGuid for every application release really the intended approach? If not, is there a supported way to tell ODIS that a newly generated OEM installation is an update of an existing ProductGuid?
I am specifically looking for a supported ODIS/OEM Install Wizard mechanism. I would prefer not to use custom registry modifications or manually created “mini updates”, because these can leave the MSI/ODIS installation state inconsistent.
Thank you for any information or examples of how other AutoCAD OEM developers handle this.