To upgrade an application

  1. Open Group Policy Software Installation.

  2. In the results pane, right-click the new Windows Installer upgrade package (that is, not the package to be upgraded).

  3. Click Properties, and then click the Upgrades tab.

  4. Click Add to create or add to the list of packages that you want to upgrade with the new upgrade package.

  5. In the Add Upgrade Package dialog box, under Choose a package from, do one of the following:

    • Click Current Group Policy object.

    • Click A specific GPO, click Browse, and then click the Group Policy object (GPO) that you want to upgrade.

  6. Review the list of packages under Package to upgrade, which lists all of the other packages that are assigned or published within the selected GPO.

  7. Click the package that you want to upgrade, and then do one of the following:

    • To replace an application with a completely different application (perhaps an application from a different vendor), click Uninstall the existing package, then install the upgrade package.

    • To install a newer version of the same product while retaining the user's application preferences, document type associations, and the like, click Package can upgrade over the existing package.

  8. (Optional) To make the upgrade mandatory, on the Upgrades tab, select the Required upgrade for existing packages check box.

Additional considerations

  • To complete this procedure, you must have Edit setting permission to edit a GPO. By default, members of the Domain Administrators security group, the Enterprise Administrators security group, or the Group Policy Creator Owners security group have Edit setting permission to edit a GPO.

  • Before you can perform this procedure, you must first assign or publish the upgrade package.

  • Depending on the GPO, the list of packages under Package to upgrade might have zero or more entries. If this is an upgrade under Computer Configuration in the Group Policy console tree, the Required upgrade for existing packages check box is selected and unavailable because packages can only be assigned to computers—they cannot be published.

  • Publish an Application
  • Remove a Managed Application