Windows Installer Team Blog

A common question I have been receiving lately is about the Windows Installer 3.1 (v2) Redistributable and what version of the Windows Installer is actually the "latest". Well, let's hope that this posting clears up any confusion on the topic. :) ...

Question How do I AppSearch for Dot Net Framework? Answer The official registry key/value to check is HKLM\Software\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\ @Install=1. Of course, this key/value has the same issue as you mention below because the version...

Custom actions provide a generalized way of extending the Windows Installer engine. Due to the fact it's a generalized extension mechanism, it's difficult to provide a universal cookbook for custom actions. I suggest starting with the Windows Installer...

Question How do I detect that the installer is doing a repair? Answer You can check if the REINSTALL property is set. If you want to detect if a patch operation is happening (which also sets the REINSTALL property), you can check if the PATCH property...

Problem How can I tie the execution of an MSI with an enclosing Wrapper? Design Considerations Pragmatically Product Support and Administrators need the capacity to operate MSIs from the command line so there’s never been a need for MSI users to...

Question I went to the Microsoft download site and could not find a entry for the Windows Installer SDK. Where is the Windows Installer SDK? Answer The Windows Installer documentation on MSDN always lists the download page for the Installer SDK...

Question Background For background on subcomponents, see Why does the Windows Installer log list apparently duplicate components prepended with double underscore and appended with 65? A careful reader will notice a problem with the subcomponent...

Question How to manage order dependencies between AppSearch entries? In my case, I want a RegLocator to check for a path out of the registry and then I want Signature .Parent to use the path results of the RegLocator . Here's my implementation in...

Question Any tips on troubleshooting Error 2259: Database: foo.msi Table(s) Update failed? What column in the update is causing the update to fail? UPDATE ControlCondition SET ControlCondition.Condition = '1' WHERE ControlCondition.Dialog_='FolderForm...

Question When I uninstall with our application running, the folder that contained the app is not removed after reboot. Now I know the documentation for the RemoveFolders action says that if the folder is not empty it won’t remove the folder. However after...

Question How can I pass the installation directory info to the custom action exe? Answer See MSDN Topics: Changing the Target Location for a Directory [Windows Installer] MsiSetTargetPath(MSIHANDLE,LPCTSTR,LPCTSTR) function [Windows Installer...

Question Can you help me decipher the error from LastErrorRecord FormatText : "1: 2235 2: .\debug\ftminstall.msi 3: Value 4: UPDATE ControlCondition SET ControlCondition.Value = 1 WHERE ControlCondition.Dialog ='FolderForm' AND ControlCondition...

Question I am presently trying to automate patch builds for my product code, and I am using msimsp.exe with the following command-line Msimsp.exe –s -p -l It pops up a confirmation dialog saying – Target ProductVersion is greater than the...

Question Is there a way to set ACLs for a service using MSI standard actions or is a custom action required? If this can only be done through a custom action, does someone have an existing CA that sets service ACLs that I could use? Answer No, there...

Question What are some sources of: Error 1606: Could Not Access Network Location? Answer Generally, the installer will validate the existence of directories listed in the directory table -- if you don't install to that directory, then don't list...

Question I’ve got a report of error 2356 "Could not locate cabinet in stream: [2]." which says a cabinet is missing from the stream. How can I see the streams that are in the MSI and once I know the names, how can I extract them? Answer Wistream...

Question We’re trying to install our MSI without having it listed in Add/Remove Control Panel using (as per documentation I found in the MSDN): ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT=1 We’ll then manually add an entry in the registry (CurrentVersion\Uninstall\...

Question Can a non-admin user run an msi? Answer If you only install to locations where non-admins users have privileges, then the answer is easy: yes. If you install to locations such as program files or HKLM, then the answer is -- they can...

Question Will happen if the per-user install is followed by an install running with administrator privileges (i.e. one triggered by the IT administrator)? Answer Say the admin installs the same app per machine. After this setup is done, User1 still...

Question Does Windows Installer remember at uninstall the value of a property set during install? Answer No, Windows Installer doesn’t cache properties. Content credit also belongs to Ashish, MSI Team Test Engineer. You can get other...

Question How can I retain the value of a Property between install and uninstall? Background The best option is to not require persistence. For example, if you are substituting into file or registry paths, that likely means you are violating component...

Question What considerations are there for obfuscating my .MSI file with say a .DAT file name? Background I've seen this choice pursued when folks have a bootstrapper, usually setup.exe, that they always want to call the .MSI file. The justification...

Question How do I launch a browser after my install completes? Solution Please have a look at the MSDN topic: Using a Custom Action to Launch an Installed File at the End of the Installation Key Custom Action Snippit from Tutorial.cpp from Windows...

Question Where can I get some help parsing the Windows Installer logs? Answer Check out Wilogutl.exe Content credit also belongs to Ashish, MSI Team Test Engineer. You can get other Ashish insights about developing for Windows Installer from...

Question Updated build of MSI not being installed despite REINSTALLMODE=vomus property? Troubleshooting Start by noticing that features that should be installed are actually listed as Advertised MSI (s) <process info>: Feature: AdminTools;...