InstallAware

Can InstallAware install other Windows Installer files (such as MDAC, MSDE, etc.) that are packaged as MSI files?

Thanks,

Eric

Yes it can, and in fact it has some great facilities to do so. You can even capture the installation progress of the installed MSI and display it to the end user!

The steps are easy. Below is just a way to do it - you can think of others:

1) Pre-process all MSI files to increase their compressibility. You can do this with the MSI CAB Decompression tool. This tool extracts CABs embedded in MSI files, which are pre-compressed, and therefore cannot be recompressed. It decompresses them after extracting, re-creates the same CAB with the same file ordering using no compression, and then updates the MSI such that the CAB it contains is essentially decompressed. This way the InstallAware compressor can work miracles in reducing the size of your embedded CABs.
2) Add the MSI files as Support Files.
3) Use the (Un)Install MSI Setup plug-in to install the MSI files. Pass the path as $SUPPORTDIR$\\msifile.msi. You can specify any installation command line you like.

Your entire setup will be seamless after this procedure - users will never even notice that you are installing seperate MSIs, as the InstallAware progress dialog will properly capture and display the MSI's own progress. You can even uninstall the MSIs you install during the uninstallation of your application - just use the (Un)Install MSI Setup plug-in action again.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks,

Eric

If an installation that contains several merge modules fails part way through, will it when rolling back uninstall the installed merge modules ?

Yes. In Windows Installer, merge modules and your main setup files are not installed seperately, everything happens all at once. So if some part of either a merge module or the main setup fails, everything will also be rolled back.

Thanks