Visual Studio Setup

Installation and containerization of the Visual Studio family of products

BITS Logging

The attached ZIP file contains scripts to both enable and disable logging for the Background Intelligent Transfer Service, or BITS. Both scripts must be run elevated so on Windows Vista or newer open an elevated command prompt and run these scripts. You may also right-click on the scripts and choose to Run as administrator. BITSLogging.zip...

Changes for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (Beta) has been released to web, along with Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (Beta). Included as part of .NET 3.5 SP1 are Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 (Beta) and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 2 (Beta). Visual Studio 2008 SP1 includes over 250 new features and ...

Visual Studio and .NET Log Collection Utility

Setup and deployment is a tricky business. Machines can be in many different and often unforeseen states that cause setup to fail. But rarely will setup actually crash, and that is why setup logs are vital to diagnose install, repair, and uninstall problems. Setup applications for Visual Studio and .NET may write to many different logs ...

Another Workaround to Add New Components to Existing Features

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

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

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

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 ...

How to Workaround Error 1330 During Visual Studio 2008 Installation

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....