InstallAware

Hey guys,

Here is a little overview of the new Web Media Blocks pre-defined MSIcode variables that were introduced in version 11 of InstallAware.
The variables are:
CUSTOM_TASKBAR_PROGRESS_ENABLED: Initially FALSE. By default, the taskbar progress shown on the new Windows 7 Taskbar is the main installation progress, as reflected by the PROGRESS variable. Set this variable to TRUE to display custom progress instead. If you are using web builds for your deployment mode, this can be useful to provide an overall installation progress to your end-users during the download phase of your individual web media blocks: since InstallAware updates the global installation progress during each individual web media block download and extraction, your end-users may find the new Windows 7 Taskbar progress confusing with web builds.
CUSTOM_TASKBAR_PROGRESS_MAX: Initially 100. Has no effect unless CUSTOM_TASKBAR_PROGRESS_ENABLED is TRUE. Set to the maximum progress value that you desire. Note that you may not set the minimum, which is always assumed to be 0.
CUSTOM_TASKBAR_PROGRESS_PERCENT: Initially 0. Has no effect unless CUSTOM_TASKBAR_PROGRESS_ENABLED is TRUE. Set to the current progress value that you desire.

These new variables specifically come in handy in showing relative progress of Web Media Blocks.

Consider the following example. You have 5 web media blocks (discounting any offline blocks) and you would like to show their overall progress during the installation.
Lets start off by enabling custom taskbar progress:

Then, lets set the maximum progress to 5 (the amount of Web Media Blocks we have):

Then, at the beginning of the main install we will set the progress to 0:

Then, right after any Web Media Block declaration we will advance the the progress by one:

Finally, at the point where Apply Changes is about to be called we will disable the custom taskbar progress:


That's it!