Visual Studio Setup

Installation and containerization of the Visual Studio family of products

Another Workaround to Add New Components to Existing Features

February 19, 2008 Feb 19, 2008 02/19/08
Heath Stewart
Yesterday I described an issue when adding new components to existing, not-installed (absent) features the feature tree is installed. This can lead to prompts for source or failed installations. One workaround is to add new, top-level hidden features. This works well unless new resources have a dependency on the older resources installed by ...

Adding New Components to Existing Features Installs the Feature Tree

February 18, 2008 Feb 18, 2008 02/18/08
Heath Stewart
As Developer Division starts to ship patches for the Visual Studio 2008, some users are being prompted for installation source media. This is a resulting of Windows Installer needing the original source files if, for example, files are missing from disk when you repair your product or backup files are not available during patch install. If you...

Debugging Custom Actions: Leaked Handles

February 12, 2008 Feb 12, 2008 02/12/08
Heath Stewart
Debugging custom actions isn't exactly the easiest action to do; Windows Installer spawns separate processes - remoting servers - to run in-process custom actions. Any opportunity to diagnose issues without debugging can be helpful.For example, an issue that comes up from time to time is leaked handles. A Windows Installer debug log might show...

Different Packages are Required for Different Processor Architectures

January 15, 2008 Jan 15, 2008 01/15/08
Heath Stewart
A common question is how to create a Windows Installer package that installs 32-bit binaries on 32-bit platforms, and both 32- and 64-bit binaries on 64-bit platforms. If you're actually trying to install 64-bit binaries to appropriate directories and write to the 64-bit view of the registry, the short answer is that you can't build a single ...

Patch Families in WiX and Windows Installer

January 14, 2008 Jan 14, 2008 01/14/08
Heath Stewart
Patch families were introduced in Windows Installer 3.0 as a means to sequence patches even if applied in any order, and to supersede previous patches. Supersedence allows for easier delta patching and allows more patches to be installed than the 127 limit.When we started developing the new patch build support in Windows Installer XML (WiX) 3....

Fixes in Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 and 3.0 SP1

December 18, 2007 Dec 18, 2007 12/18/07
Heath Stewart
A reader pointed out that the list of fixes for .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 were published. I also see from the .NET Framework 3.5 download page that the list of fixes for .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 were also published. Both are listed below. But what is the relationship between 3.5 and 2.0 SP1 and 3.0 SP1? I mentioned previously...

How to Workaround Error 1330 During Visual Studio 2008 Installation

December 14, 2007 Dec 14, 2007 12/14/07
Heath Stewart
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:msdncab2.cab has an invalid digital signature. This may indicate that the cabinet file is corrupt.The path and name of the cabinet may be different, but might often be D:msdncab2....

The Essentials, or Heath's Greatest Hits

November 30, 2007 Nov 30, 2007 11/30/07
Heath Stewart
People commonly ask me what to start reading to learn about Windows Installer. Internally I point people to a wiki I maintain with lots of links to various sources, and some of those links are to my own blog posts. Externally I typically link to all these same sources, and typing all those links and maintaining the list becomes tedious. So I'...