Anyone know a good, free MSI editor (not Orca)?
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Does anyone know any good (user-friendly) and free MSI authoring packages? I've seen Advanced Installer, but its free edition misses out on some features I'd like to use. izfree isn't that good, either.
Quote:Original post by coldacid
Does anyone know any good (user-friendly) and free MSI authoring packages? I've seen Advanced Installer, but its free edition misses out on some features I'd like to use. izfree isn't that good, either.
Ahem. You get what you pay for. [grin]
Free tools have been made available that can edit any aspect of the MSI databases. The Windows API can modify the databases, and there are command line tools to modify the databases. If you want to improve those packages by writing a front end, or write your own tool using the APIs, then by all means do so and release it to the public for free.
There are many good commercial MSI authoring and editing packages. The one in Visual Studio is pretty good, although it isn't in their Express versions IIRC.
frob.
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It's not in Standard Edition, either. You need Pro or Team System to do MSI with Visual Studio 2005. Which is where my problem doth lay.
Quote:Original post by coldacid
It's not in Standard Edition, either. You need Pro or Team System to do MSI with Visual Studio 2005. Which is where my problem doth lay.
Microsoft claims that the standard version includes a "Click Once" deployment tool, which presumably is a simple MSI packager.
Quote:Original post by frobQuote:Original post by coldacid
It's not in Standard Edition, either. You need Pro or Team System to do MSI with Visual Studio 2005. Which is where my problem doth lay.
Microsoft claims that the standard version includes a "Click Once" deployment tool, which presumably is a simple MSI packager.
ClickOnce and MSI are not nearly the same thing. ClickOnce (although it actually requires two clicks [three if you want to be really pedantic]!) is a deployment option aimed at Smart Clients, and can be considered in the same vein as Java Webstart.
I'm looking for a good MSI editor also, but in the opposite vein - trying to find a way to extract the stuff inside one so I can develop for Axim x50v now that I have Window Mobile 5.0 for it. The SDK is freely available, but it won't install without VS2005 despite the fact that it should include everything neccessary for development. I tried using some tools I found in the Platform SDK, but the only ones that appeared to do what I want gave several error messages.
Quote:Original post by Extrarius
I'm looking for a good MSI editor also, but in the opposite vein - trying to find a way to extract the stuff inside one so I can develop for Axim x50v now that I have Window Mobile 5.0 for it. The SDK is freely available, but it won't install without VS2005 despite the fact that it should include everything neccessary for development. I tried using some tools I found in the Platform SDK, but the only ones that appeared to do what I want gave several error messages.
It might be easier to just install VS2005; the express edition is free. I know you shouldn't have to, but it would probably be less work than trying to extract the info or contact the SDK maker.
Quote:Original post by nagromoI guess I'll try that, but the VS2005 comparison page says express edition doesn't support mobile development, so I don't think it'll work. Maybe it only detects the presence and not which edition, though.
[...]It might be easier to just install VS2005; the express edition is free. I know you shouldn't have to, but it would probably be less work than trying to extract the info or contact the SDK maker.
I had the express edition installed for a while, but I couldn't use it so I uninstalled it before I got my WinMobile5.0 upgrade and I didn't think about it at the time.
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Quote:Original post by Extrarius
I'm looking for a good MSI editor also, but in the opposite vein - trying to find a way to extract the stuff inside one so I can develop for Axim x50v now that I have Window Mobile 5.0 for it. The SDK is freely available, but it won't install without VS2005 despite the fact that it should include everything neccessary for development. I tried using some tools I found in the Platform SDK, but the only ones that appeared to do what I want gave several error messages.
If you use Orca and look at the Files table of the MSI, you can map filenames and paths to GUIDs. Open up the MSI file in something like WinRAR (change the extension to .cab first) and you can find those GUIDs used as filenames. Extract the files, rename them, and there you go.
I've done that myself a few times, actually.
I'd found the Files table using Orca, but I couldn't figure out how to extract them. I tried what you suggested (treating it as a .cab), but it didn't work. I tried both WinRAR and CabArc (default windows cab utility) and both indicate it isn't a cab file.
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