Sams Teach Yourself .Net in 21 Days

By Jason Beres

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • About the Technical Editor
  • Acknowledgments
  • We Want to Hear from You
  • Introduction
  • Week 1: At a Glance
  • Day 1. Introduction to the Microsoft .NET Framework
  • Day 2. Introduction to Visual Studio .NET
  • Day 3. Writing Windows Forms Applications
  • Day 4. Deploying Windows Forms Applications
    • Introduction to Application Deployment
    • Introduction to the Microsoft Windows Installer Service
    • Understanding the Deployment Projects Templates
    • Creating a Windows Installer Package
    • Adding Merge Modules to Your Setup
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Quiz
    • Exercises
  • Day 5. Writing ASP.NET Applications
  • Day 6. Deploying ASP.NET Applications
  • Day 7. Exceptions, Debugging, and Tracing
  • Week 1. In Review
  • Week 2: At a Glance
  • Day 8. Core Language Concepts in Visual Basic .NET and C#
  • Day 9. Using Namespaces in .NET
  • Day 10. Accessing Data with ADO.NET
  • Day 11. Understanding Visual Database Tools
  • Day 12. Accessing XML in .NET
  • Day 13. XML Web Services in .NET
  • Day 14. Components and .NET
  • Week 2. In Review
  • Week 3: At a Glance
  • Day 15. Writing International Applications
  • Day 16. Using Macros in Visual Studio .NET
  • Day 17. Automating Visual Studio .NET
  • Day 18. Using Crystal Reports
  • Day 19. Understanding Microsoft Application Center Test
  • Day 20. Using Visual SourceSafe
  • Day 21. Object Role Modeling with Visio
  • Week 3. In Review

Introduction to the Microsoft Windows Installer Service

The Windows Installer is the technology behind handling all setup and deployment in Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows .NET Server. Windows Installer packages can also run on earlier versions of Windows, but the technology is built into the newer Windows version.

Windows Installer packages are predefined databases that contain information about what must be installed on a deployment target. Whereas the Visual Basic 6 Setup and Deployment Wizard used script files to determine the order of each component and files that needed to be installed, a Windows Installer package contains information about what must be installed, not how it should be installed.

The Installer service keeps track of every application that's installed on a computer, allowing you to uninstall, repair, or reinstall a package based on the state of the machine. This also gives you the ability to roll back installations. For example, if an installation is at 90% and the installation is canceled, all changes made to the computer are rolled back. The installation is not left in a flux state.

Using the tools in Visual Studio .NET, you can create Windows Installer packages that set properties and conditions, create custom dialogs, handle user preference input, and even include a product registration with the installation package.

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