Hello,
Here is a question regarding general understanding of MSI properties and their
persistence across product life.
>From what I understand, properties provided on the command line at
>installation-time are not stored by Windows Installer for later use. For
>example, if I do type:
msiexec /i prod.msi BACKUP_SERVER=backup-1.company.com
the BACKUP_SERVER will not be used (or event defined) upon repair. One solution
is to save BACKUP_SERVER in the registry upon installation and then detect that
Windows Installer is currently repairing the product, for it to use the value
stored in the registry.
Q1: Is there an alternative?
Another possibility is to use an MSI transform. The BACKUP_SERVER property will
then be saved as a transform and the transform will be applied to the MSI upon
installation:
msiexec /i prod.msi TRANSFORMS=transf.mst
When repairing, the content of transf.mst will again be used. This solution is
therefore more elegant because there is no need to put some noise in the
registry.
Problem: what about security? From what I've understood, it is possible to add
anything in a transform. Therefore, a system admin could make prod.msi do
something dangerous (for example with a custom action defined in the
transform), even if prod.msi is digitally signed, and deploy it over the
network.
Q2: How can a software provider ensure that his MSI in conjunction with an MSI
transform will do expected things (I am planing to automate MSI installations
with an auto-update service)? Is there a mechanism for limiting the level of
alterations induced by a transform (say, only modify the property table or some
properties)?
Thanks, best regards,
JV
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