CAUSE
The install program, Update.exe from the service pack, compares the version
information contained in the binaries. This version information is not the
version you can view with Windows NT Explorer. Windows NT service packs
usually have an updated version.
With Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 1, 2, and 3
If the OEM-supplied file has a lower version, it is updated automatically.
If the version is higher, it will prompt you during installation and ask if
you want to retain the existing file or overwrite with the service pack
file. When Service Pack 3 shipped, there was not a way to suppress this
dialog so an updated Update.exe was made available that automatically
retained the existing file and did not prompt the user.
With Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4
If the OEM-supplied file has a higher version, it automatically retains
the existing file without user intervention. If the OEM-supplied file
has a lower version, it prompts to either retain the existing file or
overwrite with the service pack file. There is a new parameter, -o, to
Update.exe in Service Pack 4 that will overwrite the file without
prompting the user. If for some reason the older file needs to be
retained but the prompt for a decision is not desirable, the third party
who wrote the driver needs to update the file version or the OEM driver
needs to be reinstalled after Service Pack 4 installation has completed.
A more detailed view of a file version can be obtained with two utilities.
One of these is Filewise.exe, which is available in Windows NT 4.0 Service
Pack 4 and in the Windows NT Resource Kit Update 2 or later. The other
utility is Filever.exe, which is available on the Windows NT Resource Kit
Update 1 or later. The value used to determine the file version is
displayed with Filewise as File Version.
The value used to determine the file version is VS_FIXEDFILEINFO:FileVer
and not VS_FIXEDFILEINFO:FileVersion, which is a string and, therefore,
more subject to formatting difference.
Sample output from Filewise.exe:
File NameExtSizeDateTimeFile Version
shell32dll12782246/10/984:55 PM4.0.1381.27
Example output using filever /v notepad.exe:
| Language | 0x0409 (English (United States)) |
| CharSet | 0x04b0 Unicode |
| OleSelfRegister | Disabled |
| CompanyName | Microsoft Corporation |
| FileDescription | Windows Notepad application file |
| InternalName | Notepad |
| OriginalFilenam | NOTEPAD.EXE |
| ProductName | Microsoft(R) Windows NT(TM) Operating System |
| ProductVersion | 4.00 |
| FileVersion | 4.00 << used for display |
| LegalCopyright | Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1981-1996 |
VS_FIXEDFILEINFO:
| Signature: | feef04bd |
| Struc Ver: | 00010000 |
| FileVer: | 00040000:055b0001 (4.0:1371.1) << used for comparison |
| ProdVer: | 00040000:055b0001 (4.0:1371.1) |
| FlagMask: | 0000003f |
| Flags: | 00000000 |
| OS: | 00040004 NT Win32 |
| FileType: | 00000001 App |
| SubType: | 00000000 |
| FileDate: | 00000000:00000000 |