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Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Other product
and company names herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Visual
Studio Installer Readme includes updated information for the documentation
provided with the Release to Web version of Microsoft® Visual Studio® Installer
1.1. The information in this document is more current than the information in
the Visual Studio Installer documentation.
Visual Studio
Installer 1.1 is based on Microsoft Windows Installer technologies version 1.2.
Updated versions of Windows Installer may become available in the future and may
be obtained from the Microsoft web site.
For other
issues on the Help system of the Visual Studio suite of products, go to:
MSDN, the Microsoft Developer Network Readme (ReadmeDN.htm in the MSDN CD-ROM
1 root directory).
Create Installer Projects with
a Maximum of 800 Components
High Capacity Media Required
When Including Microsoft Windows Bootstrap Loader in Installer Packages
Installing Loose Files
Spanning Several Disks When the Installation Includes Cabinet (.Cab) Files
Product Information Module
Signature Cannot Contain Spaces
Extensions in the Associations
Editor Cannot Contain Periods
Fonts Can't Be
Added to an Installer Via the Add Files Dialog
Online Documentation Is Not Integrated with the MSDN Library
Accessing the Current Online MSDN Library
Navigating to Error Message Documentation
Opening Visual Studio Installer Standalone Documentation
References to MSDN Library May Be
Incorrect
Visual Studio Installer
1.1 includes support for isolated components on Windows 2000 and Windows 98
Second Edition. Authors of installers can specify that the installer copy the
shared files (commonly shared DLLs) of an application into the application's
folder rather than to a shared location. This private set of files (DLLs) is
then used only by the application. Isolating the application together with its
shared components in this manner has the following advantages:
·
The
application always uses the versions of shared files with which it was
deployed.
·
Installing
the application does not overwrite other versions of the shared files by other
applications.
·
Subsequent
installations of other applications using different versions of the shared
files cannot overwrite the files used by this application.
Because the current
implementation of COM keeps a single full path in the registry for each
CLSID/Context pair, it forces all applications to use the same version of a
shared DLL. To enable an application to keep a private copy of a COM server,
the system loader in Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows 2000 checks for the
presence of a .Local file in the application's folder. If the system loader
detects a .Local file, it alters its search logic to prefer DLLs located in the
same folder as the application.
Note Components must include
support for side-by-side sharing in order to be isolated. Side-by-side sharing
is a new feature of Windows 2000 and Windows 98 Second Edition that allows
multiple versions of the same component to run at the same time in different
processes. To learn more about creating components that support side-by-side
sharing, see the MSDN technical article located at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/techart/sidebyside.htm.
Visual Studio Installer
uses the IsolateTo property to determine if a shared file should be isolated.
If the IsolateTo property is set to the path of a valid .Exe file, a .Local
file will be created for the .Exe and a copy of the shared file will be placed
in the .Exe file's target folder. If no other version of the shared file is
already installed in the shared folder, an additional copy of the shared file
will be placed in the folder specified in the File System Explorer. On
operating systems that don't support isolated components, a single copy of the
shared file will be placed in the specified folder and a .Local file will not
be created.
Note In order to isolate a file,
it's SharedLegacyFile property must be set to True. For Merge Modules, the
SharedLegacyFile property of each file within the Merge Module must be set to
True.
The IsolateTo property is
used to specify whether a copy of a shared file should be placed in the same
folder as its associated executable file when installing on Windows 2000 or
Windows 98 Second Edition. If the IsolateTo property contains a valid path to a
.Exe file in a target folder, a copy of the shared file will be placed in the
target folder in addition to the location specified in the File System Editor.
To set the IsolateTo property:
1.
Select
a file (usually a .Dll or .Ocx) in the File System Editor.
2.
In
the Properties window, select the IsolateTo property. This will open the
Component dialog box.
3.
Click
the The following component option
button.
4.
Select
the associated .Exe file from the component list and click OK.
To disable the IsolateTo property:
1.
Select
a file in the File System Editor.
2.
In
the Properties window, select the IsolateTo property. This will open the
Component dialog box.
3.
Click
the Don't isolate option button,
then click OK.
Two new error messages
may be generated when working with isolated components:
The property "SharedLegacyFile" must be TRUE for
isolated file <file name>.
Isolated files must be
marked as shareable (by setting the SharedLegacyFile property to True) or this
error will occur when you attempt to build an installer.
Merge Module <file name> is not isolatable.
This error will occur when the IsolateTo property is set for a Merge Module that cannot be isolated. This is usually due to one or more files in the Merge Module having their SharedLegacyFile property set to false; it will also occur for a Merge Module that doesn't contain any files.
Visual Studio Installer
supports a maximum of 800 components in an installer project developed for Microsoft®
Windows 95 and Windows 98 applications. Installers containing more than 800
components will run successfully on Microsoft® Windows NT® platforms. However,
because it is recommended that you create installers to run on Windows 95,
Windows 98, and Windows NT platforms, you should not exceed the maximum of 800
components in any installer project.
By default, Visual Studio
Installer creates a new component for every file and registry entry you add to
an installer project. If you must install more than 800 files and entries, you
can group them together so some components contain multiple files or registry
entries. Be careful doing this you group files or entries together in a
component, you must always ship them in the same component when you release a new
version of your application.
The online documentation
included with Visual Studio Installer states 1,600 as the maximum number of
components per installer project. That information is no longer accurate. This
readme contains the most up-to-date information.
Creating installer
packages with the Microsoft® Windows® installer bootstrap loader for
distribution on 3.5-inch disks is not supported in Visual Studio Installer. The
Windows Installer self-installing .exe files included with the bootstrap loader
are too large to fit on 3.5-inch disks. If you create an installer that
includes the bootstrap loader and select 3.5-inch disks as the distribution
media, Visual Studio Installer will display a "Disk is full" error
message when you build the installer project.
To create an installer
package that includes the bootstrap loader, you must package and distribute it
on a higher-capacity media than provided with 3.5-inch disks example, a
CD-ROM. If you want to distribute your installer package on 3.5-inch disks, you
cannot include the Windows installer bootstrap loader with your installer
package.
If you are developing a
Japanese, German or worldwide neutral installer which includes the Microsoft®
Data Access Components (MDAC) merge module (mdac.msm file) in your installer
project, Visual Studio Installer may not import the correct version of the MDAC
merge module automatically. If Visual Studio Installer imports an incorrect
version of the MDAC merge module, the installation program may display
MDAC-related messages in the wrong international language at installation run
time.
MDAC-related messages are
contained within the MDAC merge module and are localized for Japanese and
German versions of the MDAC merge module. The neutral mdac.msm shares common
files with the localized MDAC merge modules, mdacjp.msm and mdacde.msm. The
mdacjp.msm and mdacde.msm files are not satellites of mdac.msm; they are
localized equivalents of mdac.msm. It is possible Visual Studio Installer will
erroneously pick up the localized version of the MDAC merge module when
creating a neutral installer with English dialogs or the neutral version of the
MDAC merge module when creating a localized installer.
Examine your installer
project file to make sure it contains only one MDAC merge module, the correct
neutral or localized version. You can determine the correct version of the MDAC
merge module from this table:
|
Use this version of MDAC |
For this type of installer project |
|
MDAC.MSM (language-neutral version) |
Language-neutral installers |
|
MDACJP.MSM (localized for Japanese) |
Japanese installers |
|
MDACDE.MSM (localized for German) |
German installers |
If Visual Studio Installer
has imported an incorrect version of the MDAC merge module, you must delete
that version and add the correct version of MDAC to your installer project.
Visual Studio Installer
supports the distribution of an installation program spanning several media
example, multiple 3.5-inch disks. However, if an installation program spanning
several media includes both compressed cabinet (.cab) files and loose uncompressed
files, Visual Studio Installer can read the loose files only on the first
distribution media (Disk_1 of several installation disks). If you include loose
files on multiple distribution media, Visual Studio Installer may display a
"source file not found" error message during installation, and the
installation will fail.
To include both
uncompressed loose files and .cab files in an installation package, make sure
all loose files will fit on the first installation media.
Visual Studio Installer
supports the distribution of installation programs including compressed cabinet
(.cab) files. Every .cab file includes an overhead space for the required
overhead information about the files in the .cab file. This overhead limits the
minimum size you can specify for the distribution media size.
If you set the media size
project property too low, without accounting for the overhead space, the .cab
files will exceed the media size, and may fail to install correctly. The size
of the overhead depends on the number of files you install, but will not exceed
100 kilobytes (KB) for setups containing 800 files or less (the largest number
of files you can install with Visual Studio Installer).
To prevent problems
related to media size requirements for .cab files, specify a distribution media
size of 100 KB or larger. (You set this property in the Build Tab of the
Project Properties dialog box.) A media size setting of 100 KB or larger
accounts for the .cab file overhead space, and eliminates related problems.
To successfully run the
Visual Studio Installer setup program, you must have at least one of the
following Visual Studio products already installed on the target machine:
·
Microsoft®
Visual Basic® 6.0.
·
Microsoft®
Visual C++® 6.0.
·
Microsoft®
Visual FoxPro® 6.0.
·
Microsoft®
Visual InterDev 6.0.
·
Microsoft®
Visual J++® 6.0.
Additionally, Visual
Studio 6.0 Service Pack 4 (VSSP4) must be installed on the target machine prior
to running the Visual Studio Installer setup program.
When creating a Merge
Module project, the default Module Signature property is set to the same value
as the project name. If this name contains spaces you will be prompted with an
error message stating that the Module Signature is invalid.
The help topic for this
error message states that the Module Signature may contain letters, digits,
underscores (_), or periods (.). It should also state that it cannot contain
spaces.
To correct this error,
replace any spaces in the Module Signature property with underscores (_).
When entering file
associations in the Associations Editor you cannot use a leading period for
file extensions. For example, instead of entering (.doc) for Word Document type,
you must enter (doc).
Using a leading period in
a file extension will result in a failure to register the association on target
machines.
On some operating
systems, attempting to add a font to an installer via the Add Files dialog
causes the Font Viewer to open; the font file is not added to the installer. To
add a font to an installer, select a font file in the Windows Explorer and drag
it to the File System Explorer.
Online documentation for
this Web release of Visual Studio Installer has not been integrated into the
Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Library. Some capabilities, such as F1 help
with error message dialog boxes and online hyperlinks to MSDN Library content,
are not available.
See the following
sections for detailed information.
To locate
|
See
|
|
Content referencing the MSDN Library |
|
|
F1 help from error message dialog boxes |
|
|
Visual Studio Installer standalone documentation |
Because the documentation
for this Web release is not yet integrated into the MSDN Library, references to
important related MSDN content are offered as search keywords.
To locate information
referenced to the MSDN Library, such as information about the Microsoft Windows
installer, search for the specific reference and path mentioned in the Visual
Studio Installer documentation. You can access the most current version of the
MSDN online library at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/.
If you want to view
Visual Studio Installer documentation and the MSDN library, you must run each
in a separate window.
Context-sensitive (F1)
help is disabled for error messages presented in dialog boxes.
To locate online
documentation for an error message presented in a dialog box you can either:
·
Search
in the Visual Studio Installer online documentation by entering part of the
error message text as a search string in the Search tab. Enclose
adjacent words in quotes.
or
·
Use
the table of contents to navigate to the "Visual Studio Installer
Reference" node in the Visual Studio Installer documentation.
In this web release,
Visual Studio Installer documentation is provided as a standalone HTML Help
(.chm) file. You can open the documentation by:
·
Pressing
F1 or a Help button on a Visual Studio Installer-specific user
interface element.
or
·
Opening
help from the Start menu:
1.
Click
Start, and select Programs.
2.
From
the Programs menu, select Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, and then
select Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Tools.
3.
From
the Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Tools menu, click Visual
Studio Installer Help.
If you cannot open the
Visual Studio Installer online documentation, you can download Microsoft HTML
Help 1.2 at http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/htmlhelp/default.asp.
After downloading HTML Help 1.2, follow the steps listed above to open the
documentation.
Some help topics contain
references to related content in the MSDN Library. Depending on the version of
the MSDN Library that you are searching the path given in the documentation may
be incorrect.
If the topic you are
looking for can't be found using the path:
Platform SDK
Setup and Systems Management Services
Setup
Windows
Installer Programmer's Reference
Use the following path:
Platform SDK
Management Services
Setup
Windows
Installer
If you are using a
version of the MSDN Library older than July 1999, neither path will exist. In
this case you will need to access the online version of the MSDN Library at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/.