I've noticed that some programs installed on Windows have more than three numbers in their versions. The installer creation software vendor that I use claims in their support forum that Windows Installer only uses three numbers (like major.minor.patch).

My question is, how do these other installers set different formats? Some even have rather wacky date-like values embedded in them.

CodePudding user response：

The DisplayVersion uninstall entry is just a string value and can be set to anything the installer wishes (especially if it is not a MSI based installer). Windows itself does not use this string for anything other than showing it to the user.

MSDN does say that DisplayVersion is "Derived from ProductVersion property" but that of course only applies to MSI installers.

The documentation for ProductVersion claims the syntax is major.minor.build but that same page also says:

Note that Windows Installer uses only the first three fields of the product version. If you include a fourth field in your product version, the installer ignores the fourth field.