Category: Repackaging

Windows Installer Development Tools The following tools are only available in the Windows SDK Components for Windows Installer Developers. Utility Description Instmsi.exe Redistributable package for installing the Windows Installer on Windows operating systems earlier than Windows Me. Msicert.exe Populates the MsiDigitalSignature table and MsiDigitalCertificate table with the digital signature information belonging to external cabinet files in the Media table. Msidb.exe Imports and exports database tables and streams, merges databases, and applies transforms. Msifiler.exe Populates the File table with file versions, languages, and sizes based upon a source directory. It can also update the MsiFileHash table with file hashes. Msiinfo.exe Edits […]

Windows Installer Registration How It Works When you allow the Windows Installer to register your application, the file’s registration data is stored in the Windows Installer COM tables. When using this method, the file’s DLLRegisterServer and DLLUnregisterServer functions are not called at run time, instead the Windows Installer takes the data specified in the COM tables and registers the file itself. For some advantages and disadvantages to letting Windows Installer register your file, read InstallShield Help Library topic Registering COM Servers. The Windows Installer tables used to store the file’s registration data are as follows: The TypeLib table provides information […]

Requirement: When vendor provided source includes .MSI file associated with many compressed small external .cab files, you need (for deployment software’s like LANDesk that counts on number of files in it’s package) to embed all the external .cab files back into the .MSI itself so that we’ll just have single .MSI installer for the application.  Below is the process I used and that worked for me: Process to embed the external .cab files back into .MSI file: 1. Install the vendor given .MSI in admin mode. a. msiexec /a <MSI Package.msi> b. walk through the msiexec screens and provide a […]