I'm curious to hear from people that are hitting or have hit this issue. Leave a comment or contact me directly through my blog. The issue here is often that %windir%\system32\mscoree.dll is not updated as part of the install. Behing the scenes...

In .NET 4 we have quite a few deployment options available for redistribution. There are basically 2 pivots. The Client/Full profiles and 32bit/32+64bit packages. Here are the four redistributable options and their corresponding sizes. Redistributable...

Almost 2 years ago I asked for feedback on your experience deploying .NET applications and using the .NET Framework deployment packages ( Do you deploy a managed App ). We took a lot of the feedback from my blog and various other places and implemented...

Much of this is a repost of my Beta 2 post with updated content and data. Thanks to everyone that gave feedback both on my blog and through other forums about .NET Framework installs. .NET 4 just released so I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk...

Over the past few years I have been asked more and more which version of .NET is included in the operating system. The following chart shows from .NET 2.0 onward, which version of .NET is included in both the Client and Server Windows operating systems...

There is an issue upgrading .NET 4.0 from Beta1 to Beta2 only on Vista RTM and SP1 as well as Windows Server 2008 SP1. This is due to a known issue that was fixed in Vista SP2, Win7, and Windows Server 2008 R2. It is not an issue on XP. There is a...

Thanks to everyone that gave feedback both on my blog and through other forums about .NET Framework installs. Beta2 just got released on MSDN so I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk a little about the stuff we have done to improve the installation...

I've had numerous people ask me how to remove a file using a patch. As I say below again, this should be done carefully. Background If a file is present in a Baseline package then removed in the Upgrade package, it is not trivial to get...

(Thanks for the replies so far! It is very insightful to hear all the different ways people deploy .NET apps. I am taking all your answers to the questions and using them to help inform decisions about the future of .NET deployment. I appreciate the responses...

Many times people want to take advantage of the Wix v3 patch building features but didnt build their original product using Wix. for example, they may have used Install Shield, WiX v2 or one of the other tools out there. I ran into this when I needed...

I should have made this post about 6 months ago as I was implementing the WixPdb feature in WiX but better late than never :). The wixpdb was conceived as a solution for a limitation in the original patch building system. Originally, WiX v3 patching only...

Let me start by saying I'd love to get people's feedback on the content of this post... When Toyota designs a car they would never ignore the fact that no matter how great a car they build, they have to be able to get it to their customers. Additionally...

As of a few weeks ago, the BinderExtension class in the wix extensibility model has taken on a new meaning. If you currently have a BinderExtension, you will need to rename it to BinderFileManager. Over the past year or so, numerous requests came in to...

I've been meaning to post about this for a while but just never got around to it. A few months ago I extended the implementation in WiX to allow foreach loops using any variable over any given set of values. Previously it was limited to only those variables...

This post is a follow-up to Rob Mensching's " Visual Studio ships the WiX toolset " blog entry. One of the key tenets WiX development is operating under is to make all changes available to both community WiX as well as "Rosario" WiX. (They actually...

Last night, everything came together and the changes to add binary delta patch support to WiX 3.0 went in. The feature is minimally documented but the schema and docs have descriptions of the new elements and attributes. I hope to get time to provide...

The preprocessor in WiX allows extensibilty at a few levels. In this article I will describe how to add a PreprocessorExtension to your WixExtension and have it handle variables and functions you define in your own namespace. [This sample assumes you...

Wix extensions are used to extend and customize what WiX builds and how it builds it. I plan on talking about the 3 most common types of extensions in this article series; ProprocessorExtension, CompilerExtension, and BinderExtension. The first step...

This example is aimed at demonstrating the workflow and command lines required to build a patch using the Patch element and Pyro.exe. I would appreciate any feedback anyone has. Setting up the Sample: 1. Create a Directory that you plan on running...

I dont have much time today to write but I wanted to take a chance to answer a few questions that I've been asked a lot recently. What is Pyro? Pyro is the new tool in the WiX toolset that will pull together your patch authoring and your product...

A WiX extension is a dll that allows users to add their own custom elements, preprocessor functionality, and build customizations. These extensions take advantage of the various extension points in WiX. The most commonly used ones are Preprocessor, Compiler...

This is simple but could be handy. You can now add preprocessor instructions to you WiX authoring that will allow you to display a warning or error message when the preprocessor encounters that line. Often errors and warnings would be used inside other...

Using the Patch system in WiX 3.0 allows you to select which differences between 2 builds you want to ship. By default, all the changes will go into a patch, but sometimes people want to ship a targeted update to fix a security issue or major customer...

The preprocessor in WiX has a new feature called Functional Preprocessing. It is a way for WiX users to define functions that they can use in their authoring to dynamically fill in content. Most people who use WiX are familiar with preprocessor variables...

A new patch building system has been built into WiX 3.0. The purpose of this post is to describe, at a very high level, the process of using this new system. 1. Build and ship your product using WiX v3.0. (Candle, Light) 2. Make changes to your...