3 replies to this topic

[eheimfeld]

I would like to add a CustomAction to run the InstMsi package if the version of msi installed on the target machine is lower than 2.0. What is the syntax for the this condition, i.e. "MsiVersion < 2.0"?

[TAL]

Actually it is "VersionMsi"
but you can not use a condition with floating points, as far as i know, so i guess you can try to use: VesrionMsi<200

[eheimfeld]

I was wondering if I can take this a step further and package instmsia and instmsiw into the msi package and have it run if the version is less than 2.0. The idea behind doing this is that I want to distribute the entre installation in one file, this will be useful for on-the-fly over the network updates.

I know that with InstallShiled I can create 1 setup.exe that includes everything, but using this technique I cannot view/edit the msi with Orca, which I do a lot. My solution would be to have the installation install msiexec, but I can understand that it won't work due to the fact that msiexec is actively running.

Did anyone ever try this technique? And what were the results?

[pdriley]

There are two ways of keeping the Setup and MSI files seperate, so that you can still access the MSI file with Orca.

If I remember right, the easy way is to create a CD image instead of a Network Image.  The two problems that come with this are
(1) it also creates a seperate CAB file with all the installable files in - that might not bother most people, I didn't like it.
(2) If you installation is HUGE then you're going to get more than one CAB file.

So another method is to copy the required files (Setup.exe, Setup.ini, 0x0409.ini) from your Developer\Support folder and the instmsix.exe files into one place and include these as support files.   You'll need to fiddle Setup.ini a little but it's not hard to figure out.

This should copy each file into your Disk Images folder where you can either distribute them as-is or use Package For The Web to pack them up when you've got them how you want them.

This has the added advantage for me with a Host/Client system that I can install the host, with the client kit (which only includes Setup.ini) and copy the support files into the client kit by custom action.  This reduces the overall size of the package by some 3-4 Mb.