Microsoft Windows Installer is an installation and configuration service provided with Windows. The installer service enables customers to provide better corporate deployment and provides a standard format for component management. The installer also enables the advertisement of applications and features according to the operating system. For more information, see Platform support of advertisement.

Windows Installer 3.0 and later can install multiple patches with a single transaction that integrates installation progress, rollback, and reboots. The installer can apply patches in a specified order regardless of the order that the patches are provided to the system. Patching using Windows Installer 3.0 only updates files affected by the patch and can be significantly faster than earlier installer versions. Patches installed with Windows Installer 3.0 or later can be uninstalled in any order to leave the state of the product the same as if the patch was never installed.


Free Download Windows 8 Installer


tag_hash_104 šŸ”„ https://urloso.com/2yjZGG šŸ”„



Accounts with administrator privileges can use the API of Windows Installer 3.0 and later to query and inventory product, feature, component, and patch information. The installer can be used to read, edit, and replace source lists for network, URL, and media sources. Administrators can enumerate across user and install contexts, and manage source lists from an external process.

Windows Installer 4.5 and later can install multiple installation packages using transaction processing. If all the packages in the transaction can't be installed successfully, or if the user cancels the installation, the Windows Installer can roll back changes and restore the computer to its original state. The installer ensures that all the packages belonging to a multiple-package transaction are installed or none of the packages are installed.

Windows Installer enables the efficient installation and configuration of your products and applications running on Windows. The installer provides new capabilities to advertise features without installing them, to install products on demand, and to add user customizations.

This documentation is intended for software developers who want to make applications that use Windows Installer. It provides general background information about installation packages and the installer service. It contains complete descriptions of the application programming interface and elements of the installer database. This documentation also contains supplemental information for developers who want to use a table editor or a package creation tool to make or maintain an installation.

We currently use WiX for building our MSI files, and as such it is the only MSI builder I have had experience using. I know you can build installers natively in Visual Studio though. What are the differences between using WiX and Windows Installer, and what the pros and cons are of each?

I just want to add some more specific technical information on the Windows Installer technology itself, and some of the history leading up to the creation of the WiX toolkit since this post may be found by people who are just getting into the field of installers, WiX and Windows Installer.

It is actually possible to make good MSI files without knowing too much about the inner workings of the MSI file - provided you follow WiX best practices - and trust me as a developer you will want to stay out of MSI files. They are complex, and distinctively unorthodox and counterintuitive for a developer mindset. It has to do with the complexity of storing a whole installer as a single database. It is almost entirely declarative and not procedural - but some parts are sequential and define installation order. Lots of moving parts and a clockwork of "conspiratory complexity" (gotchas that you discover as you thought everything was fine).

Windows Installer (msiexec.exe, previously known as Microsoft Installer,[3] codename Darwin)[4][5] is a software component and application programming interface (API) of Microsoft Windows used for the installation, maintenance, and removal of software. The installation information, and optionally the files themselves, are packaged in installation packages, loosely relational databases structured as COM Structured Storages and commonly known as "MSI files", from their default filename extensions. The packages with the file extensions mst contain Windows Installer "Transformation Scripts", those with the msm extensions contain "Merge Modules" and the file extension pcp is used for "Patch Creation Properties".[6] Windows Installer contains significant changes from its predecessor, Setup API. New features include a GUI framework and automatic generation of the uninstallation sequence. Windows Installer is positioned as an alternative to stand-alone executable installer frameworks such as older versions of InstallShield and NSIS.

Before the introduction of Microsoft Store (then named Windows Store), Microsoft encouraged third parties to use Windows Installer as the basis for installation frameworks, so that they synchronize correctly with other installers and keep the internal database of installed products consistent. Important features such as rollback and versioning depend on a consistent internal database for reliable operation. Furthermore, Windows Installer facilitates the principle of least privilege by performing software installations by proxy for unprivileged users.

A feature is a hierarchical group of components. A feature may contain any number of components and other sub-features. Smaller packages can consist of a single feature. More complex installers may display a "custom setup" dialog box, from which the user can select which features to install or remove.

A component is the basic unit of a product. Each component is treated by Windows Installer as a unit. The installer cannot install just part of a component.[7] Components can contain program files, folders, COM components, registry keys, and shortcuts. The user does not directly interact with components.

Creating an installer package for a new application is not trivial. It is necessary to specify which files must be installed, to where and with what registry keys. Any non-standard operations can be done using Custom Actions, which are typically developed in DLLs. There are a number of commercial and freeware products to assist in creating MSI packages, including Visual Studio (natively up to VS 2010,[8] with an extension on newer VS versions[9]), InstallShield and WiX. To varying degrees, the user interface and behavior may be configured for use in less common situations such as unattended installation. Once prepared, an installer package is "compiled" by reading the instructions and files from the developer's local machine, and creating the .msi file.

The user interface (dialog boxes) presented at the start of installation can be changed or configured by the setup engineer developing a new installer. There is a limited language of buttons, text fields and labels which can be arranged in a sequence of dialogue boxes. An installer package should be capable of running without any UI, for what is called "unattended installation".

Yesterday I ran ESET NOD32 and was notified that my computer was infected with 3 files similar to C:\Windows\Installer\4a824.msi. I was very concerned that my computer was infected, so I did a clean windows 7 install. Now when I run ESET NOD32 I get 1 threat notification for C:\Windows\Installer\4a824.msi. I can't imagine my computer is infected as I just did a clean windows 7 install. Windows update downloaded almost 200 updates, is it possible that Windows Update installed infected files on my computer, or is it likely that this is a false positive?

Yes, that would have been helpful, sorry about that. It said: "C:\Windows\Installer\4a824.msiĀ  MSIĀ  Cabs.w1.cabĀ  CABĀ  WINZIPSSRegClean.exe - probably a variant of Win32/Systweak potentially unwanted application - action selection postponed until scan completion." It wouldn't clean it and even after quarntining it, it said it was unable to move the file. I was reluctant to let it delete the file as after researching online, this may be a necessary file for windows to operate correctly (if this is a false positive).

So, I did another clean install and this time I didn't download any windows updates, and NOD32 says my system is clean, so Microsoft is sending me this suspect file as part of it's normal windows update. Is it possible that Microsoft is sending out an infected file/program?

Now Nod32 is telling me that my computer is at risk because there are critical windows updates that need to be installed, but I'm reluctant to let it update as I'm afraid it will infect my computer again. I tried to submit the file to you but even after compressing, it's too big for my email system, and when I right click on the file and use the ESET submission option, it says "file not submitted," again, I suspect due to the size.

I used the recovery disks that came with my computer originaly, a probook from hp, so the software is totally legit. Keep in mind, all was well till I did a windows update - after which I ran NOD32 and it said I had several threats similar to what I posted above.

I did cautiously install the critical updates for windows and NOD32 is still happy. I'm doing the important updates one at a time, then running NOD32. This will obviously take a bit of time, but hopefully I can identify the update that is causing the problems. Thanks for the reply.

I suspect, like you, that this file has been on my computer for quite some time - I clicked on properties for the file and it said it was last accessed about a year ago. Do you think it's possible that Microsoft is sending me an infected file as part of a windows update?

It looks like Windows installer's feature-self-repair can cause product reconfiguration issue.Since it is specific to shortcut there might be some specific shortcut linked component missing/deleted.Below blog/detailed explanation gives more insights about cause and possibles fixes. 0852c4b9a8

download windows 7 ultimate crack for free

fifa manager 12 jar mobile free download

free download mba project report finance