MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way\TroubleshootingBugs, Features and Issues (NON-MAKEMSI)No Components Bug

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BUG: No Components Bug

Windows Installer does not like to have zero components in an MSI, it will probably fail with a message or error code similar to:

DEBUG: Error 2731:  Selection Manager not initialized.

Or like the following (if no UI):

DEBUG: Error 2728:  Table definition error: Component

Of course the message above is itself another bug as there is nothing wrong with the definition of the table.

If the "FeatureComponents" table doesn't exist then assuming a UI, it will trap with the something like the following in a verbose log:

Action 10:06:14: LicenseAgreementDlg. Dialog created
Action 10:06:54: SetupTypeDlg. Dialog created
=====================================================
Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Module: C:\WINNT\System32\msi.dll
Function: 0x771678d2
=====================================================

Registers:
EAX:00000000  EBX:00087DF0  ECX:000DB94C  EDX:00000000  ESI:000DB94C  EDI:00087DF4
CS:EIP:001B:771678D2 SS:ESP:0023:0006C938  EBP:0006C9AC
DS:0023  ES:0023  FS:0038  GS:0000
Flags:00000296

Call stack:
Address   Frame
771678D2  0006C9AC 0
 -- 0x779298AA 0x0006D5EC 0x7722117F 0x771678D2
7792994C  77929A00 0
 -- 0x93E94468 0xFDB5E977 0x25FFFFFF 0x7793E944
52517793  E8C025FF 0
 -- 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000

=== Verbose logging stopped: 25/09/2004  10:06:55 ===

Work Around

If you are producing an MSI without components (valid but rare) you can add the following code as a workaround (to create a component):

<$Component "WindowsInstaller3Workaround" Create="Y" LM="Y" Directory_="<$AnyDir>">
<$/Component>

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