"Files and Folders" View of InstallShield

InstallShield gives you a nice "Files and Folders" view(Application Data) and lets you add new components as drag and drop files. It is very easy for a developer to jumpstart an installation project without reading any documents. But it does not mean you can totally forget the existence of component table.

Recently I find out there are lots of duplicated components in my project, they have the same name but different suffix, for example: mylib.dll1, mylib.dll2, mylib.dll3. It confused me for a while because I am not sure if I should delete some of them(as a developer, removing duplication becomes my habit:)).

Until recently I find out that if you delete files from "Files and Folders" view, they won't be removed from the component table. And after you add the same file again, InstallShield will create a new component named yourfile.dll1(.dll2 if .dll1 exists already). By the way, they will be considered to be different components since the component code changed.

Maybe InstallShield thinks it's nice to keep them for people don't use version control:)