Joy of Setup

After a brief hiatus, WiX v3.0.4603.0 was released on Friday, 10-October-08. You can download it from http://wix.sourceforge.net/releases/3.0.4603.0/.

New features

• Eric implemented his own feature request to support parameter files for event manifests (1903673).
• I implemented x64 and ia64 support for WixDifxAppExtension (1962701).
  Note that this change required moving the binary .wixlibs out of the extension and into companion files. The .wixlibs (difxapp_ia64.wixlib, difxapp_x64.wixlib, difxapp_x86.wixlib) must be in the same directory as WixDifxAppExtension.dll.
• Rob added support for calling 64-bit processes in 64-bit directories from CAQuietExec (1998496).

Bug fixes

• Mike wins the prize for oldest bug fixed: 1215626: WebApplication Uninstall does not remove COM+ Application.
• Rob fixed 1930640: PFXImportCertStore() fails to delete private key containers and again with 2139051: certificate install fails.
• Eric fixed 1954320: ConfigureEventManifestUnregister is not run on REINSTALL.
• Mike fixed 2034671: Directory ID must not be equal to MSI property.
• I fixed 2038040: Loading Extensions.
• Mike fixed 2041995: Lit exception with multiple input files and no -out file.
• Dan fixed 2041997: Exception:NonNumeric value in numeric column of custom table.
• Eric fixed 2048669: MSBuild returning incorrect output.
• Dan fixed 2072792: No warning when Patch fields have invalid lengths.
• Rob fixed 2077669: ICE03 for HttpHeader with ‘ - ‘ characters.
• Heath fixed 2078569: DirectorySearch Depth.
• I fixed 2078764: CAQuietExec doc doesn’t show type 51 CA.
• Heath fixed 2084824: directory search regression starting with 3.0.4415.
• Eric fixed 2093042: Problems with verbose logging from WcaUtil.
• Rob fixed 2099971: $(sys.SOURCEFILEPATH) points to wrong file.
• Rob fixed 2106531: <ServiceConfig> just can’t get it to work.
• Dan fixed 2122961: Need better error message: Registry/KeyPath/Action.
• Jason fixed 2124218: Candle fails in MSBuild if WiX not installed.
• Jason fixed a bug in MakeSfxCA to support multiple copies of the same dependent files.
• Jason fixed a bug in Heat when harvesting subdirectories from MSBuild project output.

WiX v3.0.4513.0 was released on lucky Saturday, 13-September-08. You can download it from http://wix.sourceforge.net/releases/3.0.4513.0/.

New features

• Aaron added properties to WixNetFxExtension to detect .NET Framework Client Profile.

Bug fixes

• Mike Carlson fixed a bug in Light that was triggered when you used a filename that couldn’t be represented in the database’s chosen code page.
• John Nannenga fixed a bug in DTF’s FeatureAttributes.
• 1372126: SqlDatabase with multiple files creates a single file set
• 1565886: Setting extended ACL permissions conditionally doesn’t work
• 1588180: errors and warnings when trying to ‘light’ HxS installer
• 1892358: XmlConfig can’t seem to find/modify an element by Id
• 1894817: Uninstall fails if IIS ext can’t locate website
• 1947061: DeleteMachineCertificate action fails
• 2002687: Shortcut does not correspond to parent
• 2017360: ContinueOnError should be allowed for non-component SqlDatab
• 2041989: Candle exception when inculding an invalid wxi file
• 2043410: GAC assembly installation fails if file name does not match
• 2046956: Pyro can’t target multiple baselines
• 2051748: DropOnReinstall="yes"/CreateOnReinstall="yes" doesn’t
• 2078554: Illegal identifier File/@Id when only specifying File/@Name
• 2088247: Null Reference Exception
• 2094263: IIS Extension: WebProperties are not being set
• 2104030: Binder variable assemblyFullName generates invalid type name

WiX v3.0.4429.0 was released on Friday, 29-August-08. You can download it from http://wix.sourceforge.net/releases/3.0.4429.0/.

New features

• Aaron added properties to WixVSExtension to detect Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1.
• Aaron also added a new custom action, WixExitEarlyWithSuccess, which makes it easy to exit without error in a major upgrade when a later version is already installed.
• I updated make.bat and wix.build to pass desired verbosity from the NAnt side of the build to the MSBuild side.
• Candy Chiang, of the team integrating WiX into Visual Studio, contributed many updates to the WiX.chm documentation.

Bug fixes

• 1591591: scawebsvcext.cpp does not work in IIS 5
• 1741663: WebAppPool Fails on IIS < 6.0
• 1848752: NativeImage CA never runs
• 2010047: Cannot add wixlib to project
• 2041989: Candle exception when inculding an invalid wxi file
• 2077095: Firewall Extension fails
• Eric St. John fixed a bug in the CloseApplication custom action to correctly send close messages to all the top-level windows of the specified process, which should fix the problem noted on wix-users where CloseApplication didn’t work with VB6 apps.

WiX v3.0.4422.0 was released on Friday, 22-August-08. You can download it from http://wix.sourceforge.net/releases/3.0.4422.0/.

New features

• Aaron added documentation on properties used in the MSBuild tasks and targets.
• Dan Manson added a strong-name skip-verification entry so builds on x64 OSes work without registry hacks.
• Eric St. John added the ElevatedCloseMessage attribute to the WixUtilExtension CloseApplication element (and corresponding custom action implementation), to send a close message to the target process’s windows while running deferred.

Bug fixes

• 1708072: Access Violation with Large Cabinets
• 1827123: Can’t create sql database with name contains ‘-’
• 1881660: IIS Extension: Unable to install Certificate from MSM
• 1881856: IIS Extension: Unable uninstalling certificate under VISTA
• 1930640: PFXImportCertStore() fails to delete private key containers.
• 1984738: SchedXmlFile does not return ERROR_INSTALL_USEREXIT
• 2013549: Pyro is unnecessary slow
• 2023959: ConfigureEventManfiest returns ERROR_INSTALL_FAIL on cancel
• 2034934: Binder variable File IDs are not modularized
• 2041989: Candle exception when inculding an invalid wxi file
• Chris Araman cleaned up some warnings in native code.
• Mike Carlson fixed the preprocessor to handle variable names containing a dot in ifdef/ifndef checks.
• Mike also fixed the WixUtilExtension User custom action so that on uninstall, it removes the user from groups it was added to if the user isn’t deleted on uninstall.

[Updated with actual features -v- bug fixes.]

WiX v3.0.4415.0–code-named Heat-Wave-in-Seattle?!–was released on Friday, 15-August-08. You can download it from http://wix.sourceforge.net/releases/3.0.4415.0/.

New features

• Jason added to DTF support for MSI 4.5’s embedded UI, along with a sample that uses WPF for the UI.
• Eric St. John added support for standard command-line switches to the WiX v3 bootstrapper.

Bug fixes

• 1273447: Can’t put RegLocator inside DrLocator
• 1613071: Unable to save VS project
• 1832500: Preprocessor: nested include uses wrong directory
• 2051748: SqlDatabase table definition error
• I worked around a bug in MSI 4.5’s support for embedded UI. The FileName column purports to be of the Filename type, which requires both short (8.3) and long file names. It turns out only one file name, long or short, is supported.
• Aaron fixed bugs in the ShellExec custom action topic and the how-tos that referred to it.
• Jungwook Bae, of the Visual Studio team integrating WiX, fixed some bugs in Votive to make it behave more like C# projects.