Msi wrapper failed
Reason to pay for 3rd-party installer software, and that might leave Microsoft open to more lawsuits.
#Msi wrapper failed software#
After all, if Microsoft had created a simple, intuitiveĪnd functional system for installing software onto Windows then no one would have any That InstallShield, Wise and other 3rd-party companies could stay in business. Perhaps Microsoft deliberately made a mess of Windows Installer so Some 430 MB! Presumably that ends up being about 1 GB of absurdly overpriced software, once the 430 MB package has To charge nearly $3,000 for their InstallShield product, and the installer for InstallShield itself, as of 2018, is The situation has become so ridiculous that Flexera Software (formerly named Acresso), the makers of InstallShield, are able in order to produce specialized software. that makes sense of Microsoft's installer Yet instead of making software installation easier, Windows Installer has made Than an INI file to create a full-featured installer. So there's no reason that people should need anything more Supposed to be doing all of the "heavy lifting". It's a rather absurd situation: Microsoft created a comprehensive software installation systemįor Windows, which should have simplified the process. Software developers using WI actually create their own installation files. Installer installation files, is so complex,Ĭonvoluted and poorly designed, with data so heavily cross-referenced - and the available tools are so limited - that few The structure of MSI databases, when they are used as Windows It uses an MSI database that contains approximately 80 tables, with extensive cross-referencingīetween the various columns of those tables. Unfortunately, the Windows Installer system is extremely - even bizarrely - complex.
#Msi wrapper failed install#
The software install settings and usually contains the software itself, packed inside the MSI. Windows Installer (WI) refers to using MSI database files as the "housing" for a software installation.Īn MSI file used to install software through WI contains Subset of SQL, have sometimes been referred to as "WQL" or Windows Query Language.) Offering an extensive set of functions for accessing and manipulating an MSI database. But the functions available for working with MSIs present it as a simple SQL database.Ī scriptable object provided by msiexec.exe (the WindowsInstaller.Installer object) is basically a simple SQL "engine", Technically it's a Compound Storage File, In a file with the extension ".msi".(Sometimes the MSI file is packaged inside an EXE file.)įor the purposes of this webpage, Windows Installer and MSI are defined separately, with MSIīeing the database and object model, while "Windows Installer" refers only to Microsoft's use of MSI filesĪn MSI file is actually an SQL database, for all practical purposes. Software installed by Windows Installer comes packaged MSI is a way to install Windows software.Ī few years ago Microsoft developed a new system for installing software onto Windows.