I have a peculiar wish to install an msi twice on a machine. The purpose of the double install is to first install under the pre-production folder, run the deployment in a safe environment prior to deploying in the production folder.

We typically use separate machines to represent these different environments however in this case I need to use the same box.

The two scenarios I get are as follows:

• I've installed pre-production, I'm happy, I want to install production, I run the msi, it asks whether I want to repair or remove the installation
• I've production installed, I want to install the new version of the msi, it tells me I already have a version of the product installed and I must first un-install the current version

The first scenario isn't too bad as we can at that point sensibly un-install and re-install under the production folder, but the second scenario is a pain as we don't want to un-install the live production deployment.

Is there a setting I can give to msiexec that will allow this?

Is there a more suitable different approach I could use?