Improved Registry Edit and Key Handling

[R.Mueller]

Hi,

currently I am building a new setup with hundreds of registry keys in it. Its a pain to integrate all the keys with Advanced Installer and assign to specific components. The final result I would like to achieve is a single component containing a file together with all registry entries for this file.

To do so, I need to add the file, and then insert all the keys in registry view. Later on I have to manually find all components containing all the registry keys I have imported before and to manually assign it to my target component.

It would be helpful, if I could assign the keys directly from registry view to a specific component and to have a option to keep the keys together in one component instead of creating a single component for each part of a registry key or value. Additionally an improved view of the registry settings inside the component would be very helpful to understand, if some parts of the registry settings are missing.

Until now I only have a endless list of keys:

RegView.jpg (7.77 KiB) Viewed 910 times

why not show it similar like this:

RegView2.jpg (7.35 KiB) Viewed 910 times

Regards,

R.Müller

[Cosmin]

Hi,

It would be helpful, if I could assign the keys directly from registry view to a specific component and to have a option to keep the keys together in one component instead of creating a single component for each part of a registry key or value.

I added this improvement on our TODO list and it will be available in a future version. Thank you for your suggestion.

Additionally an improved view of the registry settings inside the component would be very helpful to understand, if some parts of the registry settings are missing.

We will consider improving this in a future version. Thank you for your suggestion.

Regards,
Cosmin

[R.Mueller]

Hi Cosmin,

It is also very important for us, to share registry keys between components. This usually happens, when you use 32-bit and 64-bit files in the same project. Registry extraction also does not work in such a case, because the second file contains same keys, which are already exists in this project (or at least AI thinks, they are already exists, maybe they are installed to HKLM\CLSID and HKML\Wow6432Node\CLSID depending on 32-bit or 64-bit components).

Bogdan from support recommends me to follow http://www.advancedinstaller.com/user-g ... istry.html, which may be an appropriate workaround for single keys, but my problem is, that I have some hundreds of registry keys needed to be created by hand in this way.

My proposal would be to allow sharing of registry keys between different components. I could create an individual component for the 32-bit and 64-bit file, share the keys I want to share between the two components and set one to be a 64-bit component. Registry key/value creation and registry reflection need to follow this setting as well. But maybe there is a better way to solve this problem somehow.

What do you think about this issue?

Regards,

Roland

[Bogdan]

Hi Roland,

My proposal would be to allow sharing of registry keys between different components...

I'm afraid due to design limitations this is not possible. What is possible is the sharing of a component between multiple features, by pressing "SHIFT" and dragging the component under the desired feature.

Regards,
Bogdan

[R.Mueller]

Hi Bogdan,

What about the idea of an improved registry view inside of components instead of the endless list of registry keys? I have had already a long discussion with Mihai about that, but he declined this idea as well.

I don't understand your point here, because everyone who has to maintain a larger number of keys in his projects is getting some trouble with the current situation. For example, I have to manage over 8.000 registry entries in my project and, surely they are saved not only in one, but into several components. Currently it is hard to get an overview about the keys, for example if some specific keys are missing or some others went to the wrong component. Furthermore it would be nice to filter the registry view by feature and/or by component. Additionally there is the fact, that if you use 32/64-Bit package you may have to add keys to the same location in registry view, but its not possible. You mentioned in http://www.advancedinstaller.com/user-guide/qa-32-64-bit-registry.html, that AI can not handle duplicate keys or values, "but the "Registry" table inside the MSI supports them". So, why not make it possible in registry view as well? I just add the same value to different components, one is 32-Bit, second is a 64-Bit component and on the target system they are installed either to HKLM\Software or HKLM\Software\Wow64 ... so, again, I don't believe, that I am the only one, installing more than a couple of registry keys at all and getting into trouble with the registry keys.

I understand, that there are some design limitations due to Windows Installer rules and best practice recommendations. But still I have to manage those thousands of keys somehow - ANY optimization would be helpful to make the life easier.

Regards,

Roland