Open Bug 543392 Opened 14 years ago Updated 2 years ago

MSI Installer should be able to install multiple instances side by side

Categories

(Firefox :: Installer, enhancement)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Installer
Platform:
x86
Windows 7
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

()

People

(Reporter: khuey, Unassigned)

References

Details

This bug is to track adding functionality to the MSI installer to enabling side by side installs.  This is difficult, but not impossible.
I really don't think this is needed as long as we still provide zip files. Multiple installs are only useful for web developers, who are (or at least should be) tech-savvy enough to know where to download the zip file and how to extract it.
The problem with not supporting side by side builds is that the number of people testing beta builds is MUCH larger than the number of people testing nightly builds, it is much more preferable to allow them to install a second copy for evaluation, and this is often how we find out about bugs in the product including the installer. If there was a reasonable way to flush out the bugs in the MSI including the different update mechanism that is required for MSI then I wouldn't have a problem with not supporting side by side installs.
Perhaps we could have two separate GUID's for stable and beta releases (and the third for nightlies)? This way any user could have three instances of an application installed at any time: stable, beta, and nightly.
Yep... this possible solution has been discussed and is among the possible solutions Kyle is considering
I should clarify a bit, it's difficult to install multiple copies of the same version side by side.  Copies of differing versions is straightforward (using exactly the method Rimas proposes) and is something I want to finish in Bug 231062.
From what I've read, your work on Bug 231062 does cover this, so would this be a duplicate?
No.  In Bug 231062 I'm trying to avoid doing things that would make this impossible.  There will still be extra work to be done.
Blocks: 564875
Severity: normal → S3
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