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Try Windows Installer 5.0 in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 RC

Early last week Microsoft announced the delivery of Windows 7 release candidate coupled with the delivery of the release candidate of Windows Server 2008 R2.

 

Test the Windows 7 Release Candidate at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx.

 

Test the Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/R2.aspx.

 

In these releases, you can try What's New in Windows Installer 5.0

 

 

Posted by rflaming | 1 Comments

Setup for the Altair

Today I came across it in a Wikipedia article on the Altair

 

On final approach, Allen realized that they had forgotten to write a bootstrap program to read the tape into memory. Writing in 8080 machine language, Allen finished the program before the plane landed. Only when they loaded the program onto an Altair and saw a prompt asking for the system's memory size did Gates and Allen know that their interpreter worked on the Altair hardware. Later, they made a bet on who could write the bootstrap program first. Gates won.

Posted by rflaming | 0 Comments

Try Windows Installer 4.5 functionality available in these Windows Release Candidates

TechNet just published the RC candidates for Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 have been released. 

All of these releases have the Windows Installer 4.5 features embedded in this Windows distribution.

Windows 7 is also expecting an RC soon though broad access is not yet available.

Posted by rflaming | 0 Comments

Reregistering the Windows Installer service does not work on Vista and above

A common troubleshooting Windows Installer technique before vista was to reregister the Windows Installer service.  The steps went something like this

Unregister Windows Installer, and then reregister Windows Installer. To do this, follow these steps:
 
1. On the "Start" menu, click "Run:.
 
2. In the "Open" box, type "msiexec /unreg", and then press ENTER.
 
3. On the "Start" menu, click "Run".
 
4. In the "Open" box, type "msiexec /regserver", and then press ENTER.

This no longer works on Vista and above.  This is because the Windows OS install technology itself, called CBS aka Component-Based Servicing, has moved all service registration into it's own declarative format.  CBS also uses an underlying technology called service hardening to have it's Trusted Installer service own all of the OS resources. Using servicing hardening enabled Windows Vista to evolve Windows File Protection into Windows Resource Protection as it now protects both files and registry keys.

References to this troubleshooting step for earlier versions of Windows include

Posted by rflaming | 0 Comments

Windows Installer 5 Documentation Now Online

MSDN has updated their web site with documentation for Window Installer 5 in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

A good place to start is the What's New In Windows Installer 5.0 page.

Of the feedback I received for Windows Installer in Windows Vista, the Single Package Authoring worth a look.

Posted by rflaming | 0 Comments

Windows Installer 5.0 Crash on Windows 7 Beta

The TechNet forum post Windows Installer Crash appears to have find a workaround for the issue by using

start regedit
navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SQMClient\Windows\DisabledSessions
rename MachineThrottling to _MachineThrottling

Original credit for the workaround was attributed to http://chris123nt.com/2009/01/18/sqm-client-causing-crashing-in-windows-7/

Posted by rflaming | 0 Comments

Windows Installer 4.5 in Vista SP2 and Windows 2008 SP1

Per this TechNet article, Windows Installer 4.5 will be in Vista SP2 and Windows 2008 SP1.
Posted by rflaming | 0 Comments

Top Microsoft Developer Partner Conferences for 2009: MIX, TechEd, and PDC (yes Virginia another PDC ;^)

Wow.  Two PDCs in a row.  

  • MIX09 - March 18 - 20, at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas: is all about the Web.
  • Tech•Ed - May 11 - 15 in Los Angeles. Tech•Ed is all about shipped Microsoft Technologies. Most of the tracks are presented by Microsoft product teams and industry gurus. If this is for you, be sure to check out the pre-conference seminars as it already has a really good lineup.
  • PDC, a.k.a. the Professional Developers Conference, November 17 - 20, 2009 in Los Angeles, is all about Microsoft unveils its future, and it's the one that resonates best with developers. Be sure to attend this one.
Posted by rflaming | 0 Comments

Adding an IFrame to a SharePoint Wiki Page

While integrating the Windows Installer XML 3.0 toolset, we needed to add references to the WiX manual on our SharePoint Wiki site.  The straightforward path would have been to add an <iFrame src="<URL path to WiX manual page>" />.  Unfortunately the wiki page content swallows any IFrame elements. 

After poking around for a while, I found the following works for adding an IFrame to a SharePoint Wiki topic

  1. Create new page using your favorite SharePoint Wiki method
  2. View the new page in explorer
    1. Navigate to the list view of the wiki pages <site root>/wiki/Pages/Forms/AllPages.aspx
    2. In the View dropdown, select Explorer View
  3. In the Explore view, right click on the page you just created and choose edit (FWIW: I'm using notepad)
  4. Find the element containing ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMain"
  5. Just after the element found in step 4 add the start of a table (like so)
  6. <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server">
    <table width=100%>
    <tr><td>

  7. Find the subsequent element <WebPartPages:WebPartZone
  8. Just before the element found in step 6 add the IFrame and the end of the table (like so)
  9. </td></tr>
    <tr><td>
    <iframe src="http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix3/light.htm" width=100% height=1000>
    </td></tr>
    </table>
     <WebPartPages:WebPartZone runat="server" FrameType="None" ID="Bottom" Title="loc:Bottom" />

  10. Save the file and close your editor.
  11. Refresh the Wiki page in your browser and you have a IFrame inside your wiki page
A cool thing about this technique is that when a subsequent user edits the wiki page (using the usual SharePoint methods) the are unable to edit the content (from the other site) that you just IFramed into the page.
Posted by rflaming | 0 Comments

Mark Russinovich discusses the new kernel constructs in Windows 7

In Channel 9 presentation Mark Russinovich: Inside Windows 7, Mark discusses the new kernel constructs in Windows 7 (wandering up into user mode only briefly).
Posted by rflaming | 0 Comments

Early Content for Windows 7 ISV Partners

With the recent announcement fo the Windows 7 Beta, there are now tools for ISVs to evaluate the opportunity on Windows 7 including

ISV Goal Resource Value
Compatibility of my shipped apps Windows 7 Application Quality Cookbook Learn how to verify compatibility of your applications with Windows 7...
Guidance for app targeting Windows 7 Developer Guide Get help building applications on ...
Insights into technical depth Windows 7 White Papers ...for in-depth technical insight into Windows 7
Presentations from converence Windows 7 Content from PDC 2008 ...session recordings from this year's Professional Developers Conference.
Resources beyond the above Windows 7 Partner Resources ...the Windows 7 partner opportunity
Posted by rflaming | 1 Comments

Try the Windows 7 beta at http://microsoft.com/windows7 (available soon)

Friends,

Please try the Windows 7 beta at http://microsoft.com/windows7.  I hear it's not available just yet will be available soon. 

My little piece of Windows is the Windows Installer 4.5 features + bug fixes that rolled forward into Windows Installer 5.0. 

Compelling stuff if installers are your thing, if I do say so myself ;^)

Thanks for your interest and efforts,
Robert

 

Posted by rflaming | 0 Comments

Windows Installer 3.1 Still a Top Download

Recent Download Center newsletter noted the Windows Installer 3.1 is still in the Top 5 downloads more than three years after its original release.

Title Release Date Popularityascending

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

Open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.

11/19/2007

#1

Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows XP

Internet Explorer 8. Faster, Easier, More Private, and More Secure.

9/16/2008

#2

Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP

Download the latest version of the world's most popular Web browser.

5/6/2008

#3

Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable

The Microsoft® Windows® Installer is an application installation and configuration service. WindowsInstaller-KB893803-x86.exe is the redistributable package for installing or upgrading Windows Installer.

9/2/2005

#4

.NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86)

The Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 (x86) redistributable package installs the .NET Framework runtime and associated files required to run applications developed to target the .NET Framework v2.0.

1/22/2006

#5

 

 

 

Posted by rflaming | 3 Comments
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