MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way\IntroductionChange History

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Change History

MAKEMSI like most products I work on is a work in progress, it is never "perfect". In any case my perfect is probably different from yours. I do the best available in the time I have and then improve where and when possible, for this reason feedback is very important as it tells me where I may need to concentrate some effort.

Most of the MSIs I build using MAKEMSI are for automatic installation under the system account on a "standard controlled environment". Feedback from other people using MAKEMSI in different ways helps me build a better tool.

Please let me know of any bugs or issues and do not assume that someone else has reported it. I have generally fixed all known bugs/issues. The very fact that you are having a problem means that I probably do not know of it! In rare cases I do get snowed under and forget things, in this case please remind me!

Note that I don't put every little change here but mainly the ones that you may notice or you should be aware of. To see what I might be up to between releases this page is updated online at "http://makemsi-manual.dennisbareis.com/changehistory.htm".

If I have any fixes available between releases these will be available at "http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/makemsi/files/". Note that these may be "experimental" or quick fixes so be sure to backup files so that you can restore things if required.

1. In progress (to do soonish... OK, at least I know I definately need to do it!)
   

   • Not sure that the "DialogEntry" CheckBox type is working correctly when values other than 0/1 used. For example, uncheck "TryMeWithUserDialog.MM" go next and previous, checked again!

   • English text, in sundry ".mmh" files (mainly "uisample.mmh"), see the "Internationalization" section.

   • Look into smart cabbing.

   • Check out sorting of .chm contents: And a very minor thing I noticed at the MAKEMSI help file: the command list in the contents seems to be alphabetical, but a number of entries starting with 'Registry' stand in between Platform and ProductFind. On closer examination, this is not a bug as such but the ordering of entries in the documentation (which I should improve).

   • Any "flashing" tooltips in the documentation (MAKEMSI and generated) is an IE 7 bug, but is there something I can do about it?

2. Next Release
   
   • You tell me, feedback please!
     Have you ever looked at a product and said "Wouldn't it be nice if ...", well get on your backside and send an email, make it so! I'm not always right and believe it or not I don't mind being told so.
   • Note that documentation improvements occur almost every release.

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   • Your idea here :-).
   • Some tools create an "ActionText" table which only allows for short descriptions ("L64" for the "Description" column in my testcase). The "ProductValidation" command would fail in this situation, the text is now configurable with the default probably short enough for all cases.
   • The "TableDelete" command can now delete tables that haven't been predefined.

3. 08.123 (2 May 2008)
   
   • A new "AccessApply" command.
   • Minor change to the "Access" command.
   • The second "EntryCheck" in the VBS created with the "VbsCa" command should have been "ExitCheck".

4. 08.096 (5 April 2008)
   
   • MAKEMSI now performs more validations to work around the Windows Installer bug described in section "A Windows Installer _Streams table key longer than 62 bytes corrupts the database".
   • Updated the 2213 error message which gets displayed when build fails.
   • Added the new "PatchUninstall" custom action attribute, rework required as mechanism changed in recent 4.5 beta 2.

5. 08.066 (6 March 2008)
   
   • Fixed the "[Date] [Time]" string that the "WrapInstall" command places into the "MakeMsiWrapInstall" registry.

6. 08.023 (23 January 2008)
   
   • Fixed a "DirectoryTree" bug which would also have affected the "Files" command (and possibly others). In some situations (long and/or similar directory names), part of the structure could be lost.
   • New "MAKEMSI_MM_SUPPORT_TEXT" environment variable which controls the "support text" inserted by the "MM.CMD" batch file into the "*.dbg.txt" file..
   • Updated the code which determines the default value of the "PLATFORM_SDK_DIR" macro.
   • The "TryMeAddVersionKeywordAndLaunchCondition.MM" sample would fail if none of the "OnlyOn" types generated code.

7. 07.341 (7 December 2007)
   
   • The "Registry" command now has a new type of "MultiString" to provide improved support for "REG_MULTI_SZ" (null delimitered) strings.

8. 07.337 (3 December 2007)
   
   • The "UninstallRc0" parameter of the "WrapInstall" command was being ignored when "UninstallExe" not supplied.
   • No longer fails if the "UninstallArgs" parameter of the "WrapInstall" command contains double quotes.
   • The "TABLES_LNG_FILE_COLUMN" macro wasn't being applied to the definition of foreign keys into the file table (I think I found them all).

9. 07.325 (21 November 2007)
   
   • Can now validate the macro being restored by the "/MacroCfg" command.
   • Now set "FILE_GENERATED_COMPONENT_MAX_LENGTH" to maximum as I now follow any specified "FILE_GENERATED_COMPONENT_PREFIX" with a unique number to ensure the generated component names will be unique within the first few characters anyway.
   • New "TryMeUserInputUsed2CreateFile.MM" sample.

10. 07.310 (6 November 2007)
    
    • Made the link process of the "DllCa-C" command more flexable (don't have to override the "kitchen sink"). Also added the "-mwindows" option. Other minor tweeks.
    • The "VbsCa" command's logging (CaDebug()) now includes a timestamp.
    • Minor cosmetic change to progress dialog (ActionText moved left and extended).
    • Now that I know about error code "2716", I have created a new "FILE_GENERATED_COMPONENT_MAX_LENGTH" option which I have defaulted to 40.
    • New "Browse for File Dialog" DLL custom action tip.
    • Improved (and made configurable) the comment (in the html report) for the binary produced by the "ProductValidation" command.

11. 07.291 (18 October 2007)
    
    • Added the "PreExists" parameter to the "MacroCfg" command.
    • Fixed bug in the "files" command's handling of "SUBDIR='FLAT'", as this only adds files to a single directory you should not be getting an error message if adding to a single component. Note that this error message has also been improved.
    • Changed the default value of the "DIRTREE_DRIVE_PROPERTY_PREFIX" macro to "DRIVE." as a Windows Installer bug prevents use of the previous prefix on the command line.
    • New option "FILE_GENERATED_COMPONENT_PREFIX" (set to "FILE."). Also new "FILE_GENERATED_COMPONENT_USE_FILE_AS_KEYPATH" option.

12. 07.273 (30 September 2007)
    
    • The "message" parameter of the "ProductFind" command was being treated as invalid. Also added the "ValidateAfter" parameter.
    • Added some debug output to timestamp start and end of html report generation. Also timestamp other lines more.
    • Under very rare circumstances directory tree creation could fail with a rexx syntax error caused by incorrect usage of the "$$RxVar" transformation. I have found similar issues in the "component" and "feature" commands.

13. 07.266 (23 September 2007)
    
    • The CaMsgBox() function could previously display "ERROR:" for informational message boxes.
    • Added definitions of DVD capacities (for example "COMPRESS_CAPACITY_DVD-R(SL)").

14. 07.258 (15 September 2007)
    
    • Compile no longer fails if "COMPILE_CABDDF_MaxDiskSize" is greater than 1 gig.
    • Improved the "New -> Command Prompt (here)" facility to use "PUSHD" (only if required) so that it now works around Windows' UNC issues.
    • Logging of msi build pass 1 and 2, dll build and zip output looked like one long line in notepad (this is a notepad bug if anything but still)...
    • Improved extra file handling in the "Free Extractor" framework.
    • Made delimiter handling of many commands more consistent.
    • Minor tweeks to zipping code.

15. 07.244 (1 September 2007)
    
    • New "msi to exe" framework based on "Free Extractor".
    • Added the 4 new "Shortcut" table columns defined by Windows Installer 4.0+ to the "Shortcut" command.
    • Text that "GuidGet" puts into the guid file is now configurable.
    • Added the "UninstallOnSupersedence" & "Shared" attributes (Windows Installer 4.5) to the "component" command.

16. 07.235 23 August 2007)
    
    • Multiple uses of the "ComPlusCompUpdate" and "ComPlusRole" commands could fail as VB variables were being redefined.
    • While not so much a bug as a user configuration issue, I have made it possible by default to allocate more than 23 com plus applications ("ComPlusApp").
    • Better error message when MAKEMSI can't allocate sequence number(s) in the range requested (see GetSeqNumber()). Also fixed bug where allocated range could extend past specified end point (when range full).

17. 07.222 (10 August 2007)
    
    • You can now pass the name of a macro in the "conditional" parameter of the "Directory" command.
    • By default the code generated by the "ShortcutUrl" command now ignores resizing problems (to be more IE7 friendly).
    • Added the "64bit" & "DisableRegistryReflection" attributes (Windows Installer 4.0) to the "component" command.
    • The "Watch Uninstall Keys" facility will now also tell you if a detected product is a Windows Installer one.

18. 07.212 (31 July 2007)
    
    • Updated the "Registry Conversion" facility and the "RegistryImport" command. Fixed some minor issues and added some debugging output. The registry exported by the "Install Watch PRO" program could contain intermediate ",00" sequences in "hex(2)" data (invalid) and terminating commas on hex(2/7) values, these are now handled.
    • The ability to configure compile compression OFF by processing mode was not working correctly.

19. 07.194 (13 July 2007)
    
    • Some source management utilities such as "AccuRev" can create NTFS hard links ("virtual files"), unfortunately Windows (WinXP SP2 at least) has bugs in their "8.3" filename retrieval. I have created a workaround so that the "file" and "files" commands will not fail for hard links. Improved associated error messages. Note that "virtual directories" (NTFS reparse or junction points) have always worked.
    • Win2000 wrapped lines in the Add/Remove Applet, WinXP doesn't (probably a bug). This could cause some very wide dialogs if there were few newlines in the text defined by the "COMPANY_PROPERTY_ARPCOMMENTS" macro. By default MAKEMSI now inserts new lines at end of sentences (". ") making it much more likely the dialog will be well sized.
    • Slight improvement to the error handling in the CA generated by the "WrapInstall" command.
    • If you turned off documentation installation with "COMPANY_WANT_TO_INSTALL_DOCUMENTATION" macro you also had to set another macro ("MSI_COMPLETE_AT_END_OF_PASS") or the msi would not install, this is no longer required.

20. 07.180 (29 June 2007)
    
    • The "MsiValFilter" report used html entities for a tick and cross, unfortunately these are not supported by IE6, so now default to true/false text.
    • Updated the "Test for AntiVirus Issues" shortcut.
    • If the build fails due to inability to create basic WSH objects then error message now suggests it's reinstallation.

21. 07.174 (23 June 2007)
    
    • Made the IE code generated by the "ShortcutUrl" command more configurable.
    • The report now includes filters defined with the "MsiValFilter" command.
    • Very minor change to the "ProductValidation" code.

22. 07.167 (16 June 2007)
    
    • Now installs ftype of "MAKEMSI Script Source" for ".mm" files rather than "MAKEMSI Script". This makes it easier to search one (of ".mm" or ".mmh") but not both in Yahoo Desktop Search or other programs that work off file type.
    • To "play it safe" the "VbsCa" command was opening/closing the log file for every write, this could be slow on compressed directories, it no longer does this.
    • The "VbsCa" command now defines an "Installer" variable of its own and initializes this for WSH testing outside of the MSI. Unless you use "session.installer" this new variable will be used.

23. 07.155 (4 June 2007)
    
    • Fixed a bug in the "file" and "files" commands which could fail if the commands needed to create "Directory" table entries and you had changed the default validation to "NEW" (DEFAULT_ROW_VALIDATE_NO_WHERE).
    • Improved the "ProductValidation" command to fall back to using "Products" property if "ProductsEx" unavailable. Other minor changes.
    • Added the "COMMENT" parameter to the "MsiValFilter" command.
    • The "Shortcut" command now adds a basic comment to any icons it might define.
    • New language localization example "TryMeDutch.MM".
    • The "VbsCa" command now dumps the Windows Installer version in the header.
    • Includes newer PPWIZARD (version 07.149).

24. 07.145 (25 May 2007)
    
    • New "TryMeUpdateRegistry00-99.MM" sample.
    • Now set the "Text" control of the "VerifyReadyDlg" dialog to 160 (from 20).

25. 07.118 (28 April 2007)
    
    • Added 2 more options to the "WrapInstall" command (WRAPINST_BASETYPE_*) to allow more configuration of "base" custom action attributes. In particular you may need to configure to "Deferred System".
    • Added the "VBSCA_DEBUG?" options to the "VbsCa" command to prevent output to the screen or vary processing.
    • Added more debugging output to partially documented "UpgradeTable" macro.
    • All links to the online Platform SDK documentation should now be correct.

26. 07.058 (27 February 2007)
    
    • New "ProductValidation" command.
    • New "uisample.msi" template, which means at a minimum:
      • New Vista "MsiRMFilesInUse" restart manager dialog.
      • The action button of "VerifyReadyDlg", "VerifyRemoveDlg" and "VerifyRepairDlg" dialogs now have the Vista UAC "ElevationShield" attribute.
      • Updates some "Error" table messages.
      • Some new and updated "_Validation" table entries.
      • Bugs in latest "MSIVAL2" from Microsoft may cause problems such as incorrect reporting of invalid bits in "VerifyRepairDlg.Repair" etc when updating MSIs, see code in "UISAMPLE.MMH" for example of workaround.
    • Added the 4 new "Shortcut" table columns defined by Windows Installer 4+.

27. 07.038 (7 February 2007)
    
    • Updated the sample file "HotFix4WinXpSp2.mmh" so that the hotfix example won't fail to build if info zip hasn't been setup yet (its highly recommended that you do get around to this).

28. 07.026 (26 January 2007)
    
    • Better "Media" table entries produced by the "MergeModule" command. You may have had problems if you tried to install from an administrative install.
    • If zipping files and it fails, by default now display zip console output in notepad as well as displaying error message.
    • If told not to zip source files (as done by "ME.MMH") then MAKEMSI now outputs an informational message indicating this.

29. 07.002 (2 January 2007)
    
    • If the Parent parameter of the "Directory" command contains macro references resolving to system folder properties then it will no longer fail.
    • In WINNT+, you can now use "MM ?" on a command line to quickly open the "TRYME" sample directory (or "MM ??" for MAKEMSI directory).
    • Added code to MSIVAL2 validation to output more info if its error message contains the code 1607.

Older Entries Than Those Above

If you need to see older entries then please have a look at my older change history page.

Please email me any feedback, additional information or corrections. See this page online (look for updates) MAKEMSI© is (C)opyright Dennis Bareis 2003-2008 (All rights reserved). Tuesday May 06 2008 at 6:05pm Visit MAKEMSI's Home Page