Windows Vista Logo Guidelines und MSI

MSI-relevant Vista Logo Guidelines:

2.1 Use Windows Components for Installation

Criteria
Applications must use the Windows Installer (MSI) or ClickOnce for installation.
Windows Installation packages must not receive any errors from the Internal Consistency Evaluators (ICEs) listed here:
1-24, 27-31, 33-36, 38, 40-57, 59, 61-63, 65, 67-72, 74-84, 86-87, 89-94, 96-99

Additional Information
A variety of third-party tools are available that can be used to create Windows Installation packages.
The ICEs can be run from the Orca application, which ships with the Windows SDK.

2.2 Support User Account Control for Installation

Criteria
An installation must not assume the installation is being performed in the user context of the user who will ultimately run the application. All applications that are installed system wide must be installed by a full administrator context (even when invoked by a protected administrator), thus each application must do first run tasks separately from install.
Applications that are using a non-self-containing bootstrapper/chainer must provide an embedded manifest for the executable that designates the desired execution level for the installer. For bootstrappers that explicitly do not require elevation, the requestedExecutionLevel should be set to asInvoker (leastPrivilege in Beta 1), and uiAccess should be set to false.

Code:

Other levels: highestAvailable, requireAdministrator
If an application is launched by the installer after installation is complete, the application must be launched in the context of the original user.

2.10 Follow Best Practices for Creating Custom Actions

Criteria
• The intended behavior of each custom action must be documented.
• Nested install custom actions (type 7, type 23, and type 39) have proven to be excessively problematic for application installs and must not be used.
• Custom columns must not be added to standard tables. Adding columns to standard tables is reserved for future versions of Windows Installer.
• Gacutil must not be called from a custom action. Gacutil is not designed to be used during installation.
• Return codes from custom actions are insufficient to record the success or failure of a custom action, so the outcome of custom actions must be recorded in the log using MsiProcessMessage.
• Custom tables or properties must not be prefixed with ‘msi’ (case insensitive), as this prefix is reserved for future use in new standard tables and properties.
• Custom actions that change system state must be written as a deferred and rollback custom action pair.

2.12 Avoid Reboots During Installation

Criteria
If the application install has ForceReboot actions, this must be documented with a justification.
Files-in-use dialogs authored into Windows Installer packages must contain an option to “Automatically close applications and attempt to restart them after setup is complete.” This additional functionality allows users to avoid reboots through the Restart Manager infrastructure.

2.14 Follow Component Rules

Criteria
• If the Component table’s component field is left null, justification must be documented.
• There must not be more than one COM server included per component. If a component contains a COM server, this must be the KeyPath for the component.
• There must not be more than one file specified per component as a target for the Start menu or a Desktop shortcut.

The Windows Vista Software Logo Specs can be found at Microsoft