Purpose of product GUID

This is more of a "Whether to?" question than a "How to"?

What exactly is the "Product GUID" used for?

I have 4 releases of my installer:

1. The "main product".
2. The "evaluation copy" (as 1 but with some commands time-limited to 30 days).
3. The "major upgrade product" (as 1 but only installs if a legal, non-evaluation earlier version is located)
4. An alpha/beta test version - for testers only (and which drops dead completely at a future date).

The single install script which manages the minor differences in the installation procedure for each is great. But I am wondering whether to give each one a separate "Product GUID" and I can only judge that if I know what it does!

Dave

Hi Dave,

I would suggest to use the *same* Product GUID in this case. Only use a different GUIDs for different products (e.g. MOZART Standard Edition, MOZART Professional Edition, etc,).

Does this help?

Friedrich

Quote:

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Originally Posted by linder

Hi Dave,

I would suggest to use the *same* Product GUID in this case. Only use a different GUIDs for different products (e.g. MOZART Standard Edition, MOZART Professional Edition, etc,).

Does this help?

Friedrich

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Yes that sounds good. But the "evaluation copy" is essentially a "different product" in my case, whereas the the other three are variations of the same product, so I'll give the evaluation copy a different one.

Is it entered in the registry somewhere? Used by the uninstaller?

Dave

Dave,

Okay, I understand. Yes, the GUID is used in the uninstaller. And the web update feature makes use of it.

BTW, you can use the "Releases" feature to handle the different GUIDs in the same script.