6 replies to this topic

[dtieuf]

Hi all,

I was wondering if any of you knew the consequences of "patching" an application installed with MSI by simply shipping the changed files, and not an .msp patch ?

If we're only shipping files that have already been installed properly, would that break the component rules and ref count ?

Thank you,

Sophie

[Zweitze]

1. When doing a Repair after such a patch, the original files reappear.
2. When doing a real MSP patch after this patch, you may get errors.
3. Maybe these files won't be removed at uninstall.
4. If these files have different ClassIDs, ProgIDs etc., note that these won't be installed (well that shouldn't be a surprise...)
5. If the file has a shortcut in the program menu, and a new icon, this icon is not seen in the program menu.

I don't think it would break the component rules or ref count though. However, remember that the cached MSI maintains data about the files it installed, like file version, file size, file attributes and language. This data is used to detect corruption and validity for reinstalling, this is the reason that a repair will set the original file back.

[dtieuf]

Thank you Zweitze, this is really helpful.

[Gazous]

Hi,

In my case, I developed an "incremental" auto-update module for my application (using a WebService).

As my application is installed from an MSI package, I have no problems concerning new files and new files version. But, the problem is if my auto-update module must delete a file in the application. In this case, the application will try an automatic repair at the next launch...

Is ther a possibility to desable the "automatic repair" functionnality for some files of my application?
I tried to remove some keys in the registry but it did not work...

Thanks for your help.

Edited by Gazous, 25 May 2005 - 15:23.

[mandy]

To disable self repair properly, you'd have to change your MSI and reinstall it/upgrade it. Change the keypaths to resources that won't ever be removed (maybe a registry key), or remove the component completely.

You could disable self-repair through the registry by changing the keypaths of the components in question to something else (maybe a regsitry key). But if the application ever self-repairs for any other reason, you might fing that the keypaths go back to what they were before, because the keypath specified in the MSI would still be the same.

[Gazous]

I'am sorry but I d'ont really understand what you mean ?

[Stefan Krueger]

Which part don't you understand?
Do you know how to reinstall an MSI?
Do you know what "keypath" means?
Do you know what "component" means?