I've tried the newsgroups and the only similar post I found had no
responses; so here goes.

I have a deployment project that works fine.  On the initial installation
everything works great.

Now I need to send clients the "next release" or major update on an
installation CD and use the same deployment project installer, but with the
next version of the apps.

However, there are files that the initial application installation installs
that the user may have updated with client data that the "update" should not
"overwrite" such as mdb (Access) files and certain xml files.

As I understand the Launch Conditions editor, it appears to be a go/no-go
situation for the entire installation; not just the one or two files.  I
have tried to locate any examples for FILEEXISTS in the property field, but
there just aren't any.  I've tried building test cases and am failing
miserably; can't get it to work.  I'm probably missing something very
simple, but I'm just not seeing it.

As a workaround, right now I install the same file but with a .bak
extension.  The application each time it runs checks to see if the "real"
file exists and if it does not, then copies the .bak file to the correct
file name.  It works but (1) it runs every time the application starts and
(2) it only can check to see if the file is missing and then "create" the
missing file.  I'd rather not hard code the original file's date/time stamp
in the app, but rather use the installer project to do that.

What I need help with is a condition for the "file" that essentially says if
the file exists on the user's machine and has the original date/time stamp
then just don't overwrite it ... but the installation continues on.

Hopefully, that makes sense.  I have searched MSDN for all of the articles
on "if the file exists" kinda thing and can't find much.  As indicated
above, the only posting on this subject was in this newsgroup and the poster
got no one to respond.

If there are references that you can point me to, I would appreciate it very
much.

Thanks...

Ron