Any "machine" resources will get installed if you install the package, if you advertise the package like gmorgan618 stated only the entry points will get installed which will trigger the self-heal to fully install the application when the user call any of these (ex launching the shortcut).

Thanks that clears it up.[:)]

Now I have another question for you, if I have an advertisted shortcut in my program, does the program get installed during installation or does it require the user to run the shortcut first?

An entry point must exist and be called to trigger the self-healing mechanism.
Advertised shortcuts is an example for an entry point.
If you use a regular shortcut then the target (.EXE) the shortcut launches must call an entry point for the repair to occur. So if the exe is using COM components and those are registered using the advertise related tables such as progid, class or typelib then the repair will occur when running regular shortcut.

I would use advertised shortcuts and then have a top feature holding the user resources such as user profile and HKCU registry minimizing the time for the msi to repair these.

Thanks for your help.

But I did setup a key file for HKLM\software\companyname\appname  and moved it into its own componet, but it doesn't self heal after being deleted. I assumed it didn't self heal because my application does not have an advertised shortcut or any entry points.

I think you are a little confused.

An advertise shortcut is different then advertising an application.

Advertised shortcuts when activated, allows you to set up checks (called key files(but they can also be registry keys))... when the shortcut is kicked off, it validates those checks if any are missing it fixes them by running the msi again.

The installation will still install all of the information from the MSI, this is also called "Self-Healing"

Hope this helps,

-Grant