2 replies to this topic

[rbrinda]

I've some activex controls (.ocx files) that will get installed for two
products. For both the products, the file versions are same and they get
installed into the Systemfolder. Then, Is it necessary that these files be
marked as "Shared files" for both products? Also, should the MSI Component
GUID for these ocx files be the same for both the products?

Can anyone help please?

Thanks in advance,
Brindha.

[Ian Blake]

They should have the same guid.  They should not be marked as shared unless the files could also be supplied by a non msi installation.

If you look in the registry you will find under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer a key called components (may be deeper into the registry under UserData and a SID on some OS).  The components key contains a subkeys with rearranged component ids (You can work it out),  Under the components is a value showing the path to the keyfile of the component,   If the component exists in more than one product there will be more than one of these entries.  The value names are a mangled product key which you can look up under the products registry key, under which is a list of installed features with 'Darwin' descriptors (I do not know anything about these recept they exist in shorcuts and class info etc.)  All this is undocumented of course and liable to change and should never be edited by anthing other than msi itself.

[rbrinda]

Thank you very much for the timely help !!