Problem
When installing older versions of SOLIDWORKS on a computer that has SOLIDWORKS 2021 SP2 or newer installed, the following error will occur: "A newer version of this application is already installed. Installation stopped".
This error occurs due to a change in the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) version 7.1, introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2021 SP2. Older SOLIDWORKS installers don't recognize the new VBA 7.1 components, preventing the installation of earlier SOLIDWORKS versions. When this error occurs, the SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager log file typically shows the following entries:
- ‘{Time} Info Step 90 0 "{0: Installing} MSI: {1: {Location of installation files}\SOLIDWORKS 2020 SP05\PreReqs\VBA\vba71.msi}; command-line: {2: }
(ID {3: Microsoft_VBA}, lang {4: }, pcode {5: {90120064-0070-0000-0000-4000000FF1CE}}, mode {6: 7}, upg = {7: }, f{8: 0}, costKB {9: 0})"’ - ‘{Time} Error Status 149 0 "Product:CAM ErrorCode:0 Message:A newer version of this application is already installed. Installation stopped."’
Solution 1: Uninstall VBA 7.1 manually
The steps below are to install a specific version of the VBA 7.1 prerequisites to overwrite what is already installed & then uninstall them so that the older version of the software can be installed.
- Download the attached VBA 20XX.zip depending on the version year you are coming from & extract the files.
- Right-click the file named vba71.msi, select Install
- After it installs, right-click on vba71.msi and select Uninstall
- Right-click on the file named vba71_1033.msi, select Install
- After it installs, right-click on vba71_1033.msi and select Uninstall
- Install the older version of SOLIDWORKS, such as SOLIDWORKS 2020, for example
- Once the older SOLIDWORKS is successfully installed, reinstall the newer version of VBA by double-clicking on vba71.msi first, then vba71_1033.msi from the zip file
- Or perform a repair of the recent SOLIDWORKS installation (SOLIDWORKS 2021 SP2 or later) to reinstall the updated VBA 7.1 components.
Solution 2: Use the attached Bat file to uninstall
The steps below are a Solution from the SolidWorks QA article QA00000125323 on the VBA error:
- Download the attached file ‘QA00000125323-1.txt’.
- In Windows File Explorer, go to the View tab & turn on “File name extensions”
- Edit the file with a text editor such as Notepad, replacing the text "{Path to SOLIDWORKS Download directory}" with a full path such as:
C:\Users\%username%\Documents\SOLIDWORKS Downloads\[SOLIDWORKS Version] - Rename the file to ‘QA00000125323-1.bat’
- Right-click the ‘QA00000125323-1.bat’ file and then click ‘Run as administrator’
- Now install the older version of SOLIDWORKS
- Perform a repair of the recent SOLIDWORKS installation (SOLIDWORKS 2021 SP2 or later) to reinstall the updated VBA 7.1 components
For additional support, existing customers can submit a ticket or new customers can contact Hawk Ridge Systems.
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