\Windows Installer FAQ (the basics)Limitations (areas of improvement)
Windows Installer Basics: Limitations (areas of improvement) |
This is my list of Windows Installer limitations and improvements
(roughly in order of priority, but ease of implementation may have raised some).
Don't expect much in the way of patch limitations as in my opinion
the problems with them outway the benefits
(which in theory are big - having in the past written my own patch mechanism).
- Shortcut Choice by category or Location
- Resource Update Rules (per Component)
- Formatted Strings. Need Validations
- Formatted Strings. Need Transformations
- Cancel doesn't Cancel (advertised repair)
- Databases Contain Empty Holes!
- Databases Are Not Compressed!
- Internal MSIEXEC.EXE not Informational
- Microsoft Committed to Windows Installer?
- Ho Hum Support for Scripts
- Only supports INI data files (not XML, Text or property files)
- Limited Per-User Support
- Lots of bugs and features need fixing...
- Lack of decent driver support
- Can't query whether Per User or Per Machine!
- Cabinet File Size Limitations
- No List of Mandatory Tables
- Windows Installer Locking Mechanism
- MSI Activity After Reboot is Unreliable
- ShortCut Deletion should trigger Repair (at least optionally).
- Custom Action Return Codes Not Logged!
- Custom Action Capture STDIO/STDERR Flag
- Event Log Messages a Joke...
- SelfReg Table - Install Time Extraction
- SelfReg Table - Ordering
- Complete MSI not Cached
- MaskedEdit controls are virtually useless...
- Major logging improvements
- Only One MSI Install at a Time.
- Not All PUBLIC Properties are Supported by MSIEXEC.EXE
- Bitwise AND Conditions too limited.
- Documentation needs rewriting.
- Nested MSI installs need better support
- Better Support for Services
- Windows Installer 8.3 Support Patchy and Anoying
- Need more Custom Action Contex Information
- AppSearch can't search PATH for files!
- AppSearch can't find files based on attributes
- AppSearch - Hotfix stupidity means backed up hotfix files can be found in preference to real ones
- No Component FILE Path query
- Advertise pre-existing file associations
- Merges of Merge Modules should not complain about TARGETDIR Directory entries
- No Informational Dialogs
- Dialog Installation Units a real pain (for no gain)
I will add to the above as I think of them.
Let me know if you have a favourite to add.
I won't promise to agree to add it but hopefully
this list might eventually help influence windows installer development.