March 2006 | Visual Studio Setup

Opening Patch Files when Compiled for Unicode

Heath StewartMarch 31, 2006Mar 31, 200603/31/06

If you want to open a .msp file with the Windows Installer APIs, you must pass MSIDBOPEN_PATCHFILE to the MsiOpenDatabase function, or ERROR_OPEN_FAILED (110) is returned. Below is the definition of both MSIDBOPEN_PATCHFILE and MSIDBOPEN_READONLY from msiquery.h in the Windows Installer SDK.#define MSIDBOPEN_READONLY (LPCTSTR)0#define MSIDBOPE

Update on Problems with the Palm Treo 700w

Heath StewartMarch 29, 2006Mar 29, 200603/29/06

I previously mentioned some problems I was having with the Palm Treo 700w and that these were not isolated issues. After several calls and more research I have a few updates.A lot of referrals came in from a thread about the SMS text messaging issue for the Palm Treo 700w on the Verizon network. Text messages are sent to tell Pocket Outlook t

Specifying the Code Page for Patch Tables

Heath StewartMarch 27, 2006Mar 27, 200603/27/06

Code pages describe a character set. In MSI Databases and Code Pages I described how Windows Installer databases use a code page for the string pool, as well that the summary information stream uses its own code page in PID_CODEPAGE (1) to describe strings in the summary information stream. There is a bug, however, when creating a .msp patch d

Problems with the Palm Treo 700w

Heath StewartMarch 26, 2006Mar 26, 200603/26/06

I bought a Palm Treo 700w a short while ago and for the most part have been loving it. It combines Palm's great hardware with Microsoft Windows Mobile programming and great user interface. All this hasn't been without its problems, though.When I set up ActiveSync on the device to work withour corporate Exchange server I set the off-peak synchr

Identifying Administrative Installation Patches

Heath StewartMarch 24, 2006Mar 24, 200603/24/06

Windows Installer has the ability to create administrative installations, which is a copy of the .msi database and files that have been expanded into a source directory structure. These administrative installations can easily be deployed using Active Directory group policy deployment among other things, such as creating patches since PatchWi

Formatting Properties

Heath StewartMarch 21, 2006Mar 21, 200603/21/06

A frequently asked question is about why property values in the Property table aren't formatted when the values contain properties themselves, such as:[ProductName] is copyright by [Manufacturer].The reason these property values aren't formatted is because the Value column type is simply Text, not Formatted. Other formattable column types exis

Building with Wix.Targets

Heath StewartMarch 15, 2006Mar 15, 200603/15/06

I've been away for a while working on a high priority issue that I'll discuss in detail soon, as well as investigating a common issue regarding 32- and 64-bit installations about which I'll write a new series of posts. For much of that work I've been using Windows Installer XML, or WIX, which allows me to build Windows Installer packages, merg

Visual Studio Setup