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I am trying to use group policy to deploy our msi through AD.
For some strange reason, when I overwrite the msi with a newer version, and then go to the policy, and click on "Redeploy Application", the application gets uninstalled on the users' machines, and all reg keys, binaries and shortcuts are gone from them. The "Add/Remove Programs" still contain the application entry.
I have managed to create a minimal vdproj that does nothing but write its current Product Version to a registry key, and created two versions of it (1.0.0 and 1.1.0). I still face the same problems when using this msi in my AD environment.
I did check that my Package Codes and Product Codes are different for both versions, and that the Upgrade Codes are identical. I also checked the RemovePreviousVersion to true.

Checking with some other msi (firefox 3.0.0 and 3.6.3) I downloaded from a site specifically for AD deploy, it worked just as expected (first installing the 3.0.0, then I over-written the msi, and clicked on "Redeploy", and the users got 3.6.3 after the next log-off-log-on).

What am I missing here?

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You should be adding a new package in the GPO that "upgrades" the existing one. You can also specify there whether it uninstalls the existing one, or installs over it. Also if the new package upgrades multiple others (a consolidating package) you can choose uninstall/overwrite per upgraded package. Once all the clients upgrade to the new version, delete the old package (or leave it there).

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  • Thanks, that does seem to work just fine. Have no idea why the redeploy option doesn't work, but I understand it was not the preferred method of performing such an upgrade.
    – Noam Gal
    May 25, 2010 at 11:15

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