Allow multiple installs of Node on Windows with msi

[felixfbecker]

It should be possible to install different Node versions to different directories with the msi. Actually, many programs like Java JDK, MySQL Server, PostgreSQL or Python version the installs by minor releases by default. It should at least be _possible_ (if not the default) to install Node versions like this

C:\Program Files\NodeJS\4.0
C:\Program Files\NodeJS\5.4

...but the installer either errors or uninstalls the previous version, depending on order of install. People should be allowed to install to whatever location and these separate installs should be uninstallable separately from Control Panel (with their version in the name). The installer should simply have a checkbox (next to "Add to PATH") to uninstall the previous version for easy upgrades.

[felixfbecker]

Some comment wether this will get on the backlog or not would be nice

[Fishrock123]

Not many people work on the installers in general, if you feel strongly about this you may have to work on it yourself. :) I'm not very familiar with the installers (especially windows) but I can try to help/point to the right people.

I'm not familiar enough with windows installations to tell if this is actually a good idea though. cc @nodejs/platform-windows

[MylesBorins]

My main concern with something like this would be how a system would handle multiple installs in the path. is it only the most recent that is linked to? It seems like this could be a breaking change for systems, but I don't really know the installer so this is speculation.

@felixfbecker is there a reason you prefer this to be handled by the node installer rather than a userland module such as nvm-windows?

[cjihrig]

I'm not saying that the installer shouldn't handle these cases, but for the time being, you'll likely have a better experience if you use a version manager like nvm-windows, as @thealphanerd mentioned.

[felixfbecker]

@thealphanerd It is pretty easy to configure whats in the %PATH% on Windows, there is a very nice GUI for it:

(You can see how I installed 5.4 in a versioned directory, but I cannot install a second version next to)

People can either set for themselves what version should be there or just check "change PATH" when they install a new version, the old entry should then get replaced by the new one.

The msi is the primary and recommended installation method for Node on Windows, and just how programs are installed on Windows. Even NPM says under how to install to Windows "get the msi, npm is in it". msi is for Windows what pkg is for Mac. Version managers bypasses the native installation methods on Windows, you don't get an entry in control panel for uninstalling, you dont get shortcuts in start menu, etc. They dont share global NPM packages between versions, create symlinks and switch their targets, download node versions in AppData directories so it does not need administrative rights etc to solve a problem that shouldnt exist in the first place. I want my programs to be installed in Program Files and uninstallable via Control Panel, and I should be able to install as many versions of this in parallel as needed. I can then set my PATH to the newest one or whatever I need the most often and when I need another version, I can just reference the full path. And if I want, I can download a new msi and install it from the command line - no need for version managers (I havent tested this with Node, but most msis allow you to do so).

@Fishrock123 I indeed feel quite strongly about this: Everyone respects how files should be layed out on Unix file hierachy and everyone is ok with needing sudo to do stuff, but on Windows often the motto is install anywhere, avoid UAC at all cost. To often you see "just download the zip and put it in C:" or installers like Squirrel that dont allow you to customize the install location.

Unfortunately, I have never worked with installers before. I will try to take a look at it. But from what I understand, at least noone is opposed to this :)

[MylesBorins]

@felixfbecker thanks for sharing! I definitely think that this could be a big improvement to the windows workflow!

Let us know what we can do to help support you as you dig into this problem

[felixfbecker]

@thealphanerd @Fishrock123 I found out that the stuff is located under tools\msvs\msi, but the solution file requires VS 2010 (I have 2015). Is there a reason for this? Do I have to install VS 2010 to hack on this?

[cicorias]

it's built using the wix tools which is an open source msi creation tool.

[orangemocha]

This is something that I have been recently looking into and discussing with @joaocgreis. I agree in principle that the MSI installing only one version is too limiting. The issue of adding multiple versions / creating conflicts with the global PATH is probably the single biggest complication as already mentioned.

Python allows side-by-side installation of different major versions. That can be simply implemented by changing the upgrade code with each major version. Python also add a launcher to the path (py.exe, pyw.exe) which then select a particular version of the engine based on a shebang line in the script (or other default configuration). I am considering implementing something similar for Node.

[felixfbecker]

@orangemocha Why make it so complicated? Just give the user the choice to overwrite an existing PATH entry on install. Uninstalling previous versions would be the default anyway, so people who install multiple versions should know what they are doing. It's easy to detect what version is currently in PATH by doing node -v, and like I said it is easy to switch PATH settings on Windows manually.

The point with python was really the problem that there is a huge gap between Python 2.x and Python 3.x. I would like to not limit this on major versions, but minor by default with a directory structure like in my original post. But people could also install patch versions by changing the install dir.
I dont think shebang is needed as there isnt even a concept of shebangs in Windows. package.json provides a wonderful way to match supported Node versions for a project with all semver goodness. And if you use pm2 for example, you can specify the node runtime with an absolute path to a specific version.

[felixfbecker]

I read a bit about WiX and tried to understand the code but I don't think I'm able to contribute here. Sorry.

[benjamingr]

Pinging some wix friends.

@giltayar @AdirAmsalem @bolshchikov any chance you could get someone from the wix tools team to look into this?