Visual Studio Setup

Installation and containerization of the Visual Studio family of products

Patch Applicability Browser

Windows Installer patches can target multiple products, and Developer Division makes a practice of shipping patches that take advantage of this capability. This typically helps avoid confusion among users about which patch to download. However, because Visual Studio ships as many editions and even the Integrated Development Environment, or ...

Guidelines for COM Interoperability from .NET

Below is a running list of posts with guidelines for exposing types from .NET to COM clients. I make occasional updates and will add newer updates to the top of this list. This article serves as an easy reference point with a user-friendly URL to which others or I can refer...

ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT and Sequencing

Sequencing Windows Installer patches is typically straight forward but when the original product install or a previous, non-superseded patch defines as 1 in the Property table a custom supersedence plan is necessary to support writing Add/Remove Program registry keys correctly with patch supersedence and sequencing in mind...

Suggestions for Future Posts

In an effort to present to the community information about which you're interested, please suggest topics for future posts by adding your comments. While my job deals more with Windows Installer — more specifically setup and deployment of the .NET Framework, Visual Studio, and other Developer Division products — my other interests ...

Articles

Below is a list of articles I've written over the years. If you have ideas within the scope of Windows Installer, Microsoft .NET, COM, COM interoperability with .NET, or other related topics please add your comments to this post...