Software Deployment

Possibly you are thinking of the SOURCELIST property. (?)

My own understanding is that Windows Installer will by default cache the MSI (plus any transforms used) in the %TEMP% folder when a product is installed. However, the cached MSI will not contain any source files, these are stripped out - I think this is by design (performance / disk space saving reasons (?))

So, for any repairs not requiring access to source files (e.g. registry repair) these cached copies of the MSI's will normally be adequate.

Howver, should a repair need to access source files, the default behaviour is to look for the original source location (CD drive, UNC path &c) and, if none of these are accessible, you will then see the (dreaded) prompt for the source MSI.

This is particularly a scenario if packages are installed from a UNC path or mapped drive and if the machine in question is no longer connected to the network (e.g. mobile laptop user) at repair time.

For this reason, many corporates have procedures in place to copy down the MSI (and CAB(s) if external ones are used) to a local (often hidden) folder on the machine before the installation is run. Windows Installer always records the original source location in the registry (via the ResolveSource), so at repair time one could reasonably then expect the source files to be accessible.

The SOURCELIST property allows the package author to enter a semi-colon delimited list of alternate source locations where Windows Installer can look for the original source MSI (and CABs, if external ones were used) should the original installed-from location not be available.

For additional info, try the link to Source Resiliency

Regards,

Spartacus

Hi spartacus,

thanks for the reply..

I was thinking about what MSIMaker said in that message and thought that there is another property aside from SOURCELIST. [:D]

Thanks by the way!