Vista & Restart Manager support

[andrejzr]

Hello,

One of the requirements for Windows Vista certification is proper handling of files in use during install. Installers should use Vista Restart Manager for this purpose.

When I tested this feature with InstallAware, all I can get is the prompt to restart the system at the end of install (normal procedure used in previous operating system). But for Vista, the setup should support Restart Manager.

The certification test cases (25 in this case) clearly says:
- The application's Windows Installer package must contain the MsiRMFilesInUse Dialog....

This dialog is not part of the MSI created by IA.

Since your clients have already passed Vista certification (as you said in other posts) and IA created installs should pass the certification woithout problem, what are your instructions to get over this requirement?

You can get some more information on this also on the link:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=931731&SiteID=1


Regards
Andrej[/url]

[MichaelNesmith]

If your application already supports the restart manager architecture, you would pass this requirement. You need to make changes to your application for this to work.

InstallAware uses an external UI anyways - for things like Flash/HTML billboards that MSI cannot support, so having this dialog as part of the MSI would not make much of a difference.

Seeing your recent posts, I get the sense you feel very suspicious about your ability to get the logo with InstallAware for some reason - however please keep your forum posts limited to actual issues you run into with the product, and not your feelings. If you do run into an issue during the process, just let us know and we will resolve it.

You should know the InstallAware R&D team is taking good care of all our customers, including bringing you the first ever Glass support for Vista! InstallAware will be the first installer supporting Glass translucent surfaces on Vista, expected in the 6.3 update. Of course in the good InstallAware tradition, you will be able to use the dialog editor to create your custom glass regions any way you like - nothing hard-coded.

So try to put your prejudices aside, and move forward with your submission. If anything goes wrong on the installer, we pledge to resolve them for you free of charge in an expedient manner.

[MarkRichards]

Hello,

I get the sense that Andre and I are at similar points along the Vista Certification path, as I'm reviewing the same set of MS-supplied test cases (v1.2.001 of Certified for Windows Vista Test Cases document).

I too am a little uncertain about test case 25. To be clear, there is a requirement here that is separate from the installed application's ability to process Restart Manager messages. Let me quote from this test case, and get your interpretation:

"The application’s Windows Installer package must contain the MsiRMFilesInUse Dialog and the Title column must contain a title that includes the application name in order to pass this test case. This means the application properly handles files in use by other applications and properly attempts to shut and restart them as needed during installation."

This test case further states that, in order to validate this test, you should open Orca and look for "MsiRMFilesInUse" Dialog within the installer's dialog table. What I believe Andre is saying (and I haven't checked this yet myself) is that this dialog is missing in IA-generated installers.

This test case goes on to say that a customization transform can be used to add an MsiRMFilesInUse dialog box to exiting installation packages. Is that what we need to do in order to pass this test requirement?

Geesh, this stuff can get a little confusing.

[MichaelNesmith]

Hi Mark,

While I am not technically familiar with the internals of the process, I do know that because of the way MSIcode works, InstallAware does a lot of work at runtime (enabling runtime branching of Windows Installer package execution):

www.installaware.com/msicode_scripting_technology.pdf

This means InstallAware directly updates the MSI database at runtime, seamlessly and in a manner that guarantees correct execution on all platforms (ex: one command I do know about is the Transform Instance command, which works on all MSI versions - including those before 3.0 - and creates a new setup instance, without you actually manually creating a transform file).

So I think something similar is at work here. Please do go ahead and submit your applications - if something is wrong in the install, we will take care of it for you.

Case in Point: We had a client for whom the Certification Tool was unable to automatically identify the target product from the registry. We contacted Microsoft and asked why their tool appeared to "single-out" InstallAware installers (as it failed to list other InstallAware products as well).

Turns out their tool was confused by the MSIcode logic in the package, and Microsoft provided us with a workaround to use in InstallAware packages until they address the issue natively in their tool.

Result: Microsoft improved their tool to better recognize InstallAware packages, and we were offered with an immediate and cost-free workaround for our customer until they were able to implement the workaround. This was for Vista, by the way.