If Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 fails to install, you might find additional .msp files under %WINDIR%\Installer for each failed attempt. You should not simply delete these patches , however, because if one of the patches was applied successfully...

When you install a patch using Windows Installer, the .msp file is cached in the %WINDIR%\Installer directory. This accounts for some of the space required by Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 . A single patch is cached only once regardless to how many...

Now that Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 is released, some are wondering how to slipstream the patch so they can install Visual Studio 2005 with SP1 already applied. Much of this process is standard practice for Windows Installer packages. Please...

Windows Script custom actions should be avoided . They are difficult to debug, get blocked by virus scanners, and are far more susceptible to machine state than native custom actions. That is indicated by Windows Installer error messages 2738 and 2739...

There are several known issues when installing Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 . I've documented these below and, when possible, have included workarounds and status on any pending fixes. Contents Error 1718.File '...' was rejected by digital...

Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 is comprised of multiple packages, including executables, installer packages, and patches. Compare this with Visual Studio 2005 SP1 which was a single patch wrapped in an executable. A lot of updates were made to both...

Download the source and a release binary for a tool to extract transforms and binary streams like cabinets from Windows Installer files, such as patches.

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How to obtain and use the Visual Studio and .NET Framework log collection utility, and how to provide logs and feedback....

On average customers are experience ~45 minute installs for Visual Studio 2010 SP1. Based on machine performance, even seeing install times of a little over an hour isn’t unexpected. But if VS2010 SP1 is taking more than a couple hours to install, there...

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 can take a long time to install and may apply to multiple products on your machine, appearing to install multiple times. This is a large service pack and installs a lot of files, fixing many issues and adding several...

A lot of customers have recently started seeing the following errors, all stating in various ways that Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 failed to install. You may also see this when attempting to install other updates on top of .NET 2.0 SP1...

When installing Visual Studio 2008, you might run into an error dialog that reads, Error 1330.A file that is required cannot be installed because the cabinet file D:\msdn\cab2.cab has an invalid digital signature. This may indicate that the cabinet file...

Resources for authoring 64-bit Windows Installer packages and merge modules....

With the .NET Framework 2.0 now supporting 64-bit platforms, I have begun work on upgrading our patch build system to handle 64-bit patches. It's been quite an adventure down the yellow-brick road of 64 bitness that I think is worth sharing. Why does...

How to compact your Virtual PC VHD files using the Virtual Disk Precompactor....

How MSI and MSP files are cached....

How to use the start command to wait for msiexec.exe to finish....

How to extract files from a patch by patching an administrative installation and the hard way using OLE structured storage APIs....

When installing Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 , there are a number of errors that might occur due to insufficient disk space . You might see an error like the following that reads, Error 1307.There is not enough disk space to install this file...

How signatures are found and used in Windows Installer file types....

During some operations upgrades internally, a problem arose on some machines where a patch for the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 would fail to install. I was looped into the thread to diagnose the issue and found that the Windows Installer package and...

How to decipher an HRESULT....

How to workaround an issue that prevents 64-bit managed custom actions from executing properly on a 64-bit platform from Windows Installer packages built with Visual Studio 2005....

Some users are reporting that when installing Visual Studio 2010 SP1 they are prompted for MSI files as shown in the following example screenshot. These prompts for source are most common during rollback on failed install attempts and uninstall since...

The upcoming Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 can take a while to install and can require a lot of disk installed, and even more disk space while installing the patch. You can save a little of both by disabling the Windows Installer patch caching feature...