I have a fairly simple desktop application that uses a .NET setup project (.msi file) to perform the installation. On the first installation, everything proceeds in a timely fashion with good feedback for the user.
The problem occurs when the user is installing the latest version of the application over an old version on their machine. There is an unacceptably long delay of about 60 to 180 seconds from the time the installer’s ‘Welcome’ dialog [It’s not the Welcome dialog, I’ve removed that from the Start section of the setup project and replaced it with a CheckBox dialog to ask if the user wants a shortcut on the desktop] disappears until the ‘Progress’ dialog appears. The user sees minute(s) of blank screen and thinks the install has stopped or failed.
In the setup project properties, I’ve got the ‘DetectNewerInstalledVersion’ and ‘RemovePreviousVersions’ properties set to true. So, I believe that while nothing appears to be happening, the installer is actually removing the old version. The ‘Progress’ dialog does not appear until the new version begins installation.
I’ve been trying to either:
a) Get the ‘Progress’ dialog to display immediately after the ‘Install Icon’ dialog disappears
or
b) Show another dialog while the Uninstall is running to let the user know that the setup is still running and everything is OK.
I have been unsuccessful with both methods. Any ideas?
I’m using VS 2008 SP1
I was never able to resolve this issue in Visual Studio 2008, but now that I have switched to Visual Studio 2010, this is no longer an issue.