Windows
Installer Redistributables web page.The MSI Redistributables dialog box is one of the pages that appears when you click Advanced... on the MSI Configuration attributes pane. It allows you to specify the files or URLs for the MSI redistributables included in the configuration's bootstrap loader.
Note: For more information about the MSI bootstrap loader, see MSI Bootstrap Loader.
An MSI redistributable is an installation package provided by Microsoft that installs or updates Windows Installer. It is used in situations where the target system does not contain Windows Installer, or contains an older version that does not support the features required by your own installer.
Note: Windows Installer is only required for MSI installation packages. Tarma native installers do not require Windows Installer on the target system.
All new Windows systems come with some version of Windows Installer preinstalled, but older systems might not have Windows Installer. The following table shows which Windows Installer versions are present by default on the various Windows releases.
| Windows version | Default Windows Installer version |
|---|---|
| Windows 95 | none |
| Windows 98 | none |
| Windows Me | 1.20.1410.0 |
| Windows NT4 | none |
| Windows 2000 | 1.10.1029.0 |
| Windows 2000 Server SP1 | 1.11.1314.0 |
| Windows 2000 Server SP2 | 1.11.2405.0 |
| Windows 2000 Server SP3 | 2.0.2600.1 |
| Windows 2000 Server SP4 | 2.0.2600.1183 |
| Windows XP | 2.0.2600.0 |
| Windows XP SP1 | 2.0.2600.1106 |
| Windows XP SP2 | 3.0.2790.2180 |
| Windows XP x64 | 3.1.4000.1830 |
| Windows Server 2003 | 2.0.3790.0 |
| Windows Server 2003 SP1 | 3.1.4000.1830 |
Many other packages install (updates of) Windows Installer, so a given target system might have a more recent version of Windows Installer available than indicated in the table above.
The Windows Installer redistributables provided by Microsoft come in different versions; not all redistributable Windows Installer versions are supported for all Windows versions. The following table shows the minimum system requirements for each version of Windows Installer.
| Windows Installer | Minimum system requirements | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Windows 95, 98, NT4 with SP3 or later | No longer available |
| 1.10 | Windows 95, 98, NT4 with SP3 or later | No longer available |
| 1.20 | Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4 with SP3 or later | No longer available |
| 2.0 | Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4 with SP6 or later, 2000 | Do not use on Windows XP, Server 2003. One version for 95, 98, Me (ANSI); another for NT4 and later (Unicode). |
| 3.0 | Windows 2000 with SP3, XP, Server 2003 | Not available for earlier Windows versions |
| 3.1 | Windows 2000 with SP3, XP, Server 2003 | Not available for earlier Windows versions |
MSI redistributables are provided by Microsoft and must be used unchanged. According to the Microsoft licensing terms, you may include the redistributables with your own product as long as your product adds substantial functionality. In practice, this means that you can include them with your installer if that installer requires Windows Installer for its installation.
Note: This is only our interpretation of the Microsoft licensing terms;
for details, please refer to Microsoft's
Windows
Installer Redistributables web page.
To obtain the correct redistributables, you must go to the
Windows
Installer Redistributables page on Microsoft's web site. The following
table shows which redistributables you should use for the various Windows
Installer versions:
| Target system | 1.0, 1.10, 1.20 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 95, 98, Me | not available | InstMsiA.exe | not available | not available |
| Windows NT4 | InstMsiW.exe | |||
| Windows 2000 | InstMsiW.exe | WindowsInstaller-KB884016-v2-x86.exe | WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe | |
| Windows XP | do not use* | |||
| Windows Server 2003 |
*It is safe to include the InstMsiW.exe MSI redistributable in the bootstrap loader as long as you set the MSI version field of the MSI Configuration attributes pane to 2.0 or less. In that case, the redistributable will not be used on Windows XP or Server 2003 because they already have Windows Installer 2.0 or later available.
Important: Tarma ExpertInstall does not verify the paths or URLs that you enter in the dialog fields. It is your own responsibility to ensure that the MSI redistributables are the correct ones for the chosen platforms and Windows Installer versions. In particular, you must ensure that the redistributables do indeed install (at least) the Windows Installer version that you specify in the MSI version field of the MSI Configuration attributes pane.
Enter the paths to the MSI redistributables that you want to include in the MSI bootstrap loader. The paths should refer to local files (on your own system or network); the files will be copied verbatim to the bootstrap loader for use during installation.
Note: The paths that you enter here are only used if you set the Bootstrap option to Include MSI in the MSI Configuration attributes pane.
Enter the path for the ANSI version of the MSI redistributable, for use on Windows 95, 98, and Me target systems, or click Browse... to display a standard Open dialog box to browse for the file. If there is no MSI redistributable for these platforms, leave the field empty and use the Platforms... button in the MSI Configuration attributes pane to exclude the platforms from the build.
Enter the path for the Unicode version of the MSI redistributable, for use on Windows NT4, 2000, and later target systems, or click Browse... to display a standard Open dialog box to browse for the file. If there is no MSI redistributable for these platforms, leave the field empty and use the Platforms... button in the MSI Configuration attributes pane to exclude the platforms from the build.
Enter the URLs of the MSI redistributables that you want the MSI bootstrap loader to download during installation. The URLs should point to the actual redistributable files, and not to a generic web page that requires the user to take action in order to download the files. The URLs will be included verbatim in the bootstrap loader for use during installation.
Note: The URLs that you enter here are only used if you set the Bootstrap option to Download MSI in the MSI Configuration attributes pane.
Enter the URL to the ANSI version of the MSI redistributable, for use on Windows 95, 98, and Me target systems. If there is no MSI redistributable for these platforms, leave the field empty and use the Platforms... button in the MSI Configuration attributes pane to exclude the platforms from the build.
Enter the URL for the Unicode version of the MSI redistributable, for use on Windows NT4, 2000, and later target systems. If there is no MSI redistributable for these platforms, leave the field empty and use the Platforms... button in the MSI Configuration attributes pane to exclude the platforms from the build.