Comparing MSTs
I'm working on cleaning up some code for installing what our company refers to as its "production" set of apps, part of which is Office 2003.
During the Office 2003 install, a series of dialogs is presented. One of the dialog choices is to install Office in its regular flavor, or Office in a special flavor for one particular department.
So there are two MSTs for the Office install. My goal would be to reduce these to one.
I've saved them as txt files by using the MST File Viewer, then checked for differences using a file comparison program.
There are approximately a dozen differences between the two files. For example file A contains OCW_X_USR_102 OCW_Added_Content_MP, while file B contains OCW_X_USR_102 OCW_Added_Content_UP.
Does anyone know what these strings mean?
The other thing that just occurred to me is to do an install using each version of the MST, snapshot each with something like InstallWatch, then plow through the results to see if I can get a handle on the nature of the differences that way. But that seems loooooong and tedious, so I'd be curious to know if anyone had any ideas that might be a bit quicker. Thanks.
Last bit of info: the original packager is gone and there's no documentation as to why two different MSTs were made.
During the Office 2003 install, a series of dialogs is presented. One of the dialog choices is to install Office in its regular flavor, or Office in a special flavor for one particular department.
So there are two MSTs for the Office install. My goal would be to reduce these to one.
I've saved them as txt files by using the MST File Viewer, then checked for differences using a file comparison program.
There are approximately a dozen differences between the two files. For example file A contains OCW_X_USR_102 OCW_Added_Content_MP, while file B contains OCW_X_USR_102 OCW_Added_Content_UP.
Does anyone know what these strings mean?
The other thing that just occurred to me is to do an install using each version of the MST, snapshot each with something like InstallWatch, then plow through the results to see if I can get a handle on the nature of the differences that way. But that seems loooooong and tedious, so I'd be curious to know if anyone had any ideas that might be a bit quicker. Thanks.
Last bit of info: the original packager is gone and there's no documentation as to why two different MSTs were made.
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Answers (3)
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Posted by:
yuri
14 years ago
You could apply the first MST to the MSI and save it as a new MSI using something like Orca. If you apply the second MST on the newly created MSI you can easily see the differences between the first and the second. That works easier than a textual comparison.
Posted by:
spartacus
14 years ago
If the two transforms were originally created using the Office 2003 Customization Wizard (found in the Office 2003 Resource Kit) , then you can use that tool again to inspect the changes made in each transform.
Just run the Customization Wizard again and take the option to Open An Existing MST/Transform. You can then visually inspect the changes the transform makes. Repeat for the second transform and compare your findings.
Regards,
Spartacus
Just run the Customization Wizard again and take the option to Open An Existing MST/Transform. You can then visually inspect the changes the transform makes. Repeat for the second transform and compare your findings.
Regards,
Spartacus
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