Doctor Deploys Blog

The Windows Installer team is closing in on our Beta release of Windows Installer 4.5 so it’s time to open the Beta program.  As usual, the connect site at http://connect.microsoft.com is the host for the program.  The Windows Installer 4.5 specific subsite is at https://connect.microsoft.com/programdetails.aspx?ProgramDetailsID=1506.

We’re opening nominations ahead of our beta documentation and binary release.  For now, the draft white paper “Agility Trends in Package Software” is posted at https://connect.microsoft.com/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?SiteID=432&DownloadID=7300.  The draft paper frames the problems we’re targeting with the Windows Installer 4.5 release.

UPDATE: as E notes below in the comments below, one has to sign-up for the beta program to get access to the doc.

This paper is part of the information we offered the tools vendors on the Live Meeting call we had last month. I’m still working on improved broad live meeting logistics and a bit more polished demo that I’ll provide later in the beta program.  Your patience is appreciated as the information is gradually staged out of the Windows Installer team.

Thank you for joining our Windows Installer 4.5 beta program.

Original post by Windows Installer Team

Late last year, we posted the article Preview of Upcoming KB Articles: Windows Installer 4.0 on Windows Vista listing four KB articles we’d requested be written based on user feedback.  Two of the initially requested four have been written

Proposed Title: Custom Action code that is not NX compliant will not run on Windows Vista.
Actual KB Title: Windows Installer custom action code must be compatible with Data Execution Prevention in Windows Vista
KB Number: 929710

Proposed Title: Signed Windows Installer (MSI) packages display unsigned UAC dialog during uninstall on Windows Vista.
Actual KB Title: Notification message when you remove or repair a program in Windows Vista: “An unidentified program wants to access your computer”
KB Number: 929467

After receiving some customer feedback from David Hacker of Macrovision, we’ve added another KB request to the queue.

KB Title: ElevationShield will not show during maintenance mode on a Windows Installer native UI PushButton control

Summary: With Vista and Windows Installer 4.0, a setup author could request the User Account Control shield show-up on a Windows Installer native UI PushButton control by authoring the msidbControlAttributesElevationShield attribute in the Control table.  The shield cannot be made to occur on a button during maintenance mode.  This can cause user disorientation as the User Account Control shield will not be present to warn the user that a User Account Control credential dialog box is about to pop up.

More Information: This phenomenon occurs because the control attribute msidbControlAttributesElevationShield is gated on the MsiInstallElevated property.  The MsiInstallElevated property is set during maintenance mode for managed applications.  Per-machine installations are defined to be managed application.

[Author: Robert Flaming]

Original post by Windows Installer Team