When authoring MSI packages, you frequently need the installation to be logged. Instead of repeatedly opening a console to type in msiexec /l* install.log /i foobar.msi, these shell context menu items may speed this process up a little. They do the same as ‘Install’ and ‘Uninstall’ but log everything (/l) to PackageName.msi-install.log or PackageName.msi-uninstall.log, respectively. Here are the registry entries:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Msi.Package\shell\LoggedInstall] @="&Logged Install" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Msi.Packageshell\LoggedInstall\command] @="msiexec.exe /l "%1-install.
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When testing a custom action, it is usally practical to have the CA write some information to the installer log, so that you can verify that the CA has been called properly. But what if the installer log does not show up your information but instead the installation aborts and the log only states that the custom action returned 3 (ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE)?
There may be various reasons for this to happen, but the most common reason is probably that your DLL was unable to load because of unsatisfied dependencies.
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When Windows Installer performs a major upgrade, the position of the RemoveExistingProducts action determines when the uninstall of the old product is performed. Despite efficiency, two factors dominate the decision
What should happen if either the install or the uninstall fails? Should the new product ‘see’ registry entries/files/etc from the existing product or should the new product install ‘start from scratch’? The following table summarizes the four possible approaches.
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By default, Windows Installer packages are single-language only – no direct support for multi-language packages is currently provided. Creating a multi-lanuage installation package is thus a little more compex – the following provides a summary of the steps required:
Create an english package Compile: candle -dLANG=1033 foo.wxs Link: light -out foo.msi -loc strings-en.wxl foo.wixobj Create the german (or whatever language) package Compile: candle -dLANG=1031 foo.wxs Link: light -out foo-de.msi -loc strings-de.
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There are situations in which it would be convenient to list which apartment the threads of a process belong to. In case of managed debugging, the !threads command provided by SOS gives this info:
PreEmptive GC Alloc Lock ID ThreadOBJ State GC Context Domain Count APT Exception 0 688 00149528 6020 Enabled 00000000:00000000 00159e68 0 STA 1 f70 00165548 b220 Enabled 00000000:00000000 00159e68 0 MTA (Finalizer) In case of unmanaged debugging, however, no such command exists (at least to my knowledge).
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Install MSI with log from shell context menu