Software Deployment

are the shortcuts part of the MSI? also, what exactly is differrent about the ARP entries? are they different or just plain missing?

Yes, shortcuts are the part of MSI. ARP size is getting differed and even the INSTALLDIR size is also getting differed. 11 files are missing when i install using transform.

Naveen,

If the 11 files are part of the MSI, have a look at the conditions on the components and features that contain them. As well as the features' InstallLevel property, compared to the INSTALLEVEL property of your MSI.

If they are not part of the MSI, it is possible they get put in place by the setup stub, in which case you should install the MSI first, then "break" the Windows Installer housekeeping data on the application in the registry, and then capture a run of the setup on top of the msi installation. This capture will show you the extra stuff the setup puts on the machine.

PJ

PJ,

Actually the shorcuts and ARP entry are managed by the setup.exe only.

Reagrding the missing files, there are several components for the same files with the conditions for each component. So the components are not getting installed trough mst.

I have removed the condition for that particular component which is getting installed trough exe file and installed the msi. Now all the files were installed perfectly and the size of the INSTALLDIR also matches with exe setup.

Now everything is perfect but Iam not sure wether Iam going in the right way? Please let me know if you have any idea.

And also please tell me how to break the Windows Installer housekeeping data on the application in the registry.

Thank you very much for your support.

Using bare MSI/MST gives you more flexibility vis-a-vis deployment. For example, GP can only deploy MSI/MT.

By "breaking the housekeeping data", Pieter means renaming the relevant key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\[GUID], where GUID is your product's ProductCode.