Microsoft's Channel 9 posted a video interview with Robert Flaming, program manager on the Windows Installer team. Robert talks about topics like User Account Control (UAC), chainers, restart manager, nested install custom actions, digitally signing setups and patches. Watch the video or download...
Aaron Stebner reports an issue (some commenters call it a "nightmare") in the .NET Framework 3.5 installer that can cause a premature reboot request on Windows Vista. If the user accepts the reboot request while the framework installer or your own setup isn't completed yet, the system can...
In a previous post I wrote about a free tool from ScriptLogic called "MSI Readiness Analyzer for Windows Vista". ScriptLogic responded to my complaint that common Vista problems slipped through the validation. Version 2 of the tool performs additional tests and is available as a free download...
ScriptLogic offers a free tool called "MSI Readiness Analyzer for Windows Vista". MSI Readiness Analyzer for Windows Vista is a free standalone utility for IT professionals which analyzes MSI application installers and highlights methods to prepare them for Windows Vista. MSI Readiness Analyzer...
Richard Macdonald of the Windows Installer team at Microsoft has posted another great blog article in which he describes how to make your application restart manager aware and how to add the MsiRMFilesInUse dialog to your setup using a .msi table editor like Orca. (Re-)Start Me Up ... As I mentioned...
There is an article at the Code Project that explains some of the Vista logo requirements and test cases and offers tools and tips to pass them. Among others it shows how to modify a MSI setup created with Visual Studio Setup & Deployment project to make it Vista logo compliant. The article also...
An article that I've written for the December 2006 issue of the Macrovision DevLetter. 7 Reasons Why your Installations May Fail on Windows Vista (And How You Can Fix Them) Windows Installer is not just a technology but also a set of rules and best practices. While these rules have been specified...
An MSDN Magazine article that talks about User Account Control (UAC) on Windows Vista and also covers setup topics is available online. There are several localized versions of this article. If your language isn't detected automatically you can select a language from the drop down box in the upper right...
I found an interesting blog article from a software developer who prepared his application and setup for Windows Vista Logo certification. He describes useful resources and tips, and also some pitfalls. How to: Getting Certified for Windows Vista logo http://www.metalinkltd.com/?p=74
Windows Vista includes a new feature call User Account Control (UAC) which has the potential to break many existing MSI-based setups. UAC is a really, really important topic. Although Vista isn't released yet, I'm seeing multiple reports of broken setups. It's time to understand UAC and prepare...