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Tuesday, June 03, 2008 3:58 PM

Windows Installer 4.5 is Now Available

Windows Installer 4.5 is now available on the download center for a variety of platforms, including Windows XP SP2 and newer, Server 2003 SP1 and newer, and both Vista and Server 2008 RTM and newer. The Windows Installer 4.5 SDK is also available as a
Posted by Heath Stewart | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008 3:45 PM

Another Workaround to Add New Components to Existing Features

Yesterday I described an issue when adding new components to existing, not-installed (absent) features the feature tree is installed. This can lead to prompts for source or failed installations. One workaround is to add new, top-level hidden features.
Posted by Heath Stewart | 2 Comments
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Attachment(s): Example.zip
Monday, February 18, 2008 1:40 PM

Adding New Components to Existing Features Installs the Feature Tree

As Developer Division starts to ship patches for the Visual Studio 2008 , some users are being prompted for installation source media. This is a resulting of Windows Installer needing the original source files if, for example, files are missing from disk
Posted by Heath Stewart | 7 Comments
Attachment(s): Example.zip
Friday, February 08, 2008 8:57 AM

Get Binder Variables for Assemblies without Installing into the GAC

Binder variables in WiX are variables that are resolved, coincidentally, at bind time. This is when the linker, light.exe , collects file information, assigns auto-GUIDs, and generates the output packages among other things. There are binder variables
Posted by Heath Stewart | 0 Comments
Monday, January 14, 2008 10:29 AM

Patch Families in WiX and Windows Installer

Patch families were introduced in Windows Installer 3.0 as a means to sequence patches even if applied in any order, and to supersede previous patches. Supersedence allows for easier delta patching and allows more patches to be installed than the 127
Posted by Heath Stewart | 4 Comments
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Monday, November 26, 2007 3:36 PM

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1, and How to Detect It

No doubt you've heard the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 was released . Aaron Stebner has posted a list of links to 3.5, as well as 2.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and 3.0 SP1. It's important to note that if you install 3.5 you're actually getting 2.0 SP1 and
Posted by Heath Stewart | 23 Comments
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 3:10 AM

EXE Custom Actions are Bad

Windows Installer custom actions that launch executables (base custom action type msidbCustomActionTypeExe , 0x2) are typically bad and should be avoided. How are they bad? Let the Windows Installer team count the ways . During internal audits we question
Posted by Heath Stewart | 7 Comments
Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:18 PM

Transform Validation in WiX Patch Build

In the latest WiX v3 drops a new element is supported to configure transform validation bits. The default is still 0x0922001f but you can now configure them. Torch.exe was also modified to accept transform validation bits using the same flags as msitran.exe
Posted by Heath Stewart | 0 Comments
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Saturday, September 01, 2007 10:19 AM

Column Types Cannot be Changed in a Patch or Transform

Transforms can change just about anything in an installation package - even the code page. Transforms can also add and drop both tables and columns but they cannot, however, change the column type. This is true for patches as well, since a patch package
Posted by Heath Stewart | 7 Comments
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Monday, August 13, 2007 4:38 PM

WiX v3 Patching Improvements

In last week's release some changes to patching with WiX were made with more exciting changes to come. Peter Marcu has implemented some changes he'll talk more about on his blog , but suffice to say has reduced the number of commands and command line
Posted by Heath Stewart | 0 Comments
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Thursday, June 28, 2007 8:32 AM

Unchanged Files Break Patch Uninstall

I've discussed a couple different reasons that Windows Installer 3.0-style patches - those with the MsiPatchMetadata table in the patch package itself - might not be uninstallable. I explained another reason in a discussion about the new patch build support
Posted by Heath Stewart | 0 Comments
Friday, May 18, 2007 12:42 AM

WiX Extension for PowerShell Snap-ins

To write an installer for your PowerShell snap-in , the PowerShell documentation instructs you to extend the PSSnapIn or CustomPSSnapIn class. When you add your snap-in assembly to the Custom Action view in a Windows Installer Project in Visual Studio,
Posted by Heath Stewart | 3 Comments
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Tuesday, May 08, 2007 4:02 PM

Patch Families Can Only Ever Grow

Peter Marcu has begun talking about new functionality added into WiX 3.0 that he's been working on a lot. One of the specific features is filtering by patch families . Based on a concept Office has used internally, patch families in this case are a set
Posted by Heath Stewart | 2 Comments
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006 4:30 PM

Installing Assemblies for Runtime and Design-time Use

The Microsoft .NET Framework installs assemblies into two different locations, and this practice is recommended to developers wishing to deploy assemblies both for runtime and design-time use. Runtime assemblies are those assemblies needed for an application
Posted by Heath Stewart | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006 3:01 PM

Always use Unique Package Codes

Package codes should always be unique - even for different processor architectures.
Posted by Heath Stewart | 4 Comments
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