Comments on: Feature conditions and UI

By: Bob Arnson

Bob Arnson — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:43:28 +0000

Walker,

Right — you have complete control over feature selection using ADDLOCAL and REMOVE properties and AddLocal/Remove control events.

By: Walker

Walker — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:01:56 +0000

I believe I’ve found the answer to my own question, and it is simply to have the back button publish AddlLocal = ALL again if the installation type was FeatureX.

By: Walker

Walker — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:12:50 +0000

Hi Bob,
Very interesting article. What I’m trying to figure out, though, is how to add back features after using the Remove event to deselect them. For example, suppose I have the usual Custom, Typical and Complete buttons and for convenience I want to add a fourth button for FeatureX, which is commonly installed by itself on multiple hosts. Using the approach you describe to select just Feature X works fine, but how can you undo this when the user clicks the Back button? After clicking FeatureX, if I change my mind and go back to Custom, most features are deselected. Is there a way to clear REMOVE so Typical and Complete behave properly, and Custom shows all features selected by default?

By: Bob Arnson

Bob Arnson — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:19:39 +0000

Nick,

You’ll have difficulty convincing me that having hair is somehow virtuous…

By: Bob Arnson

Bob Arnson — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:18:57 +0000

Manfred,

Set the Feature row’s Level field to 0 to disable it.

By: Nick Stinger

Nick Stinger — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:07:45 +0000

I’m sorry, but this is so contrived, convoluted, and in-cohesive with everything else that someone at Microsoft should go bald for this design. The logic they use to implement “feature conditions” is so narrow that the capability seems to have been made for very specific uses under an even more limited number of circumstances, akin to writing a series of “if” blocks in code to supplement a poor design. The whole idea doesn’t flow with the rest of the installer concept. There is an obvious problem here!

By: msenn

msenn — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:11:45 +0000

Hi Bob,
but there must be possible to change the default state of the feature in the selection tree, when doing a custom setup.
to one of the following possibilities:
- This feature will be installed on local hard drive
- This feature and its subfeatures will be installed on local hard drive
- This feature will be installed to run from CD
- This feature and its subfeatures will be installed to run from CD
- This feature will be installed to run from Network
- This feature and its subfeatures will be installed to run from Network
- This feature will be installed when required
- This feature will not be installed
For example:
When doing a custom setup, Feature1 in the selection tree is displayed per default as “This feature will be installed on local hard drive”.
But I want to change the msi, so that feature1 is displayed per default as “This feature will not be installed”?
Any ideas?

By: Bob Arnson

Bob Arnson — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:34:14 +0000

Manfred,

You can’t change feature states in the selection tree but you can change them on the features themselves, such as by setting install levels. Generally, you’d control them by setting ADDLOCAL and REMOVE on the command line.

By: msenn

msenn — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:37:55 +0000

There is a third-party msi.
The features in the selection tree control are selected to run locally by default.
Is it possible to change the state of a feature in the selection tree control, using a transform?
Manfred

By: Pavel Huml

Pavel Huml — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:19:38 +0000

Once more I try XML markup:

NOT Installed

Feature is enabled by level:

….
MY_FEATURE_UNLOCK = "yes"