MSM Import problems

[waspy]

Hello (most probably Cosmin )
I have the following issue with the current version of the Advanced Installer:
Trying to import Microsoft CRT v9.0 (or any other) merge modules and then saving it as Advanced Installer project file causes various kind of problems...
First and the most obvious: if you import and then save the project - you can't open it anymore (different errors may appear, most probably similar to this "row with id TARGET already exists")
The project structure looks more or less ok, but some pseudo directories are created that you cannot remove (stack error appears). Also an interesting point: why if a particular reference cannot be resolved or invalid in the file, the whole file cannot be opened at all and the new one is created instead???

The reason why I wanted to convert Microsoft MSM is to be able to modify its components. I have already seen the related topic in the forum where CRT MSM takes too long to uninstall and you want to mark its components as permanent. To do this ORCA tool was recommended to modify MSM, but I thought if Import functionality is already there why not converting it an Advanced installer Merge module?

I would appreciate if you could have a look at the issue...

Kind regards,
Alexei

[ciprian]

Hi,

First and the most obvious: if you import and then save the project - you can't open it anymore (different errors may appear, most probably similar to this "row with id TARGET already exists")

The error appears because of a AI bug. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. It shall be fixed in a future version.

Also please note that the merge module contains a custom table which is referenced from a custom action. Please note that AI doesn't import custom tables so the resulted merge module will not work.

Best regards,
Ciprian

[waspy]

Hello Ciprian,
Thank you very much for a quick reaction on my issue. It's quite pleasant to deal with a company which takes customer support seriously .
So what would be a solution (if possible step by step) if I want to install Microsoft CRT MSM, but let's say I want to leave on the machine and NOT uninstall it?

Cheers,
Alex

[Cosmin]

Hi Alex,

So what would be a solution (if possible step by step) if I want to install Microsoft CRT MSM, but let's say I want to leave on the machine and NOT uninstall it?

I'm afraid that the best solution is to edit the merge module with Orca. Basically, you can add 16 to each value of the "Attributes" column of the Component table inside the MSI.

Regards,
Cosmin