WiX Online Meeting #112 Highlights

Issue triage

• Switch to Markdig Markdown processor, from @barnson, is a feature request I opened after the discussion about web site bugs during last week’s meeting. Using the same Markdown processor for both the Web site and the help file will avoid differences that have popped up over time.

• Bug causing XML data to overwrite some or all of source files, from @bzuillsmith, is a somewhat disturbing issue that reports that, somehow, in Visual Studio, the content of a project’s .wixobj files is overwriting the .wixproj file. Nobody’s seen anything like this so we asked for some more details.

• Feature request: Support MSI transactions, from @nirbar, is a request to use the multi-package transaction support in Windows Installer 4.5 and later in Burn. Nir also created a pull request implementing the feature. Discussion happens there and the wix-devs mailing list.

• RemoveFolderEx doesn’t recurse but returns 1, from @NPatch, reports an oddity using RemoveFolderEx. Logging isn’t enough to diagnose the problem so I took this bug in WiX v3.11 to add logging that might help reveal the problem.

• When RepairCommand/UninstallCommand omitted, netfx4-protocol packages should not throw CNDL1136, from @barnson, came from an experience creating a custom package group for the .NET Framework that didn’t uninstall or repair (both of which take way too much time and too often require a reboot). Unfortunately, WiX throws a warning when you omit the RepairCommand or UninstallCommand attributes. In WiX v4.0, we won’t warn.

• Using variable in util:RegistrySearch for Win64 attribute, from @cybrex86, reports a bug in the WiX schema, that triggers warnings from Visual Studio’s XML IntelliSense. We took this bug in WiX v4.0 to fix the schema.

• Running a bundle with “/layout /quiet” when a reboot is pending causes unprompted reboot, from @zanderz, says that Burn reboots during a /layout operation. That’s true—Burn treats /layout like any other action (such as install). Worrying about reboots is overkill for a /layout action so we agreed to change that behavior in WiX v4.0.

• Feature request: customize pre-req ba reboot prompt dialog text, from @glun24, requests the ability to customize the message that appears when a managed bootstrapper application needs to bootstrap .NET and a reboot is required. Currently the prompt comes from a system error message, which isn’t ideally worded to describe the immediate reboot being prompted about. We opened this feature request in WiX v4.x for someone to add localization.

• Which is the correct license?, from @tngraf, points out that some files originally from the Visual Studio SDK used in Votive have both MS-RL and MS-PL license headers. As that almost certainly came in when we changed the license headers with our move to .NET Foundation, I volunteered to fix this bug for WiX v3.11.

• Heat tool to harvest .reg file should provide option to skip escape characters in registry values., from @okesare, requests support in Heat.exe for “hybrid” .reg files that contain Windows Installer formatted text. We took the request in WiX v4.x if someone wanted to enhance Heat.exe.

• 3.x documentation missing diagram, from @snowmoonsoftware, reports a busted image on http://wixtoolset.org/. The diagram is present in unbusted form in the help file, so with a bit of luck, the fix is easy for Rob, who volunteered.

• Webroot secure anywhere finds Pua.Add.Lyrics virus in Wix310.exe , from @santoorman, who reported that a particular anti-virus scanner is declaring that the WiX v3.10.3 installer contains a virus. Rob volunteered to submit it, which has proven successful in the past to alleviate the suspicious nature of anti-virus scanners.

• wix4 - Can’t build MSI with Dependency Extension data, from @rseanhall, reports a build failure when using the dependency extension. As Sean had submitted a pull request for a dependency bug, I rudely assumed this issue was that bug, so Rob suggested we assign this bug to Sean.

• ThmUtil should support tooltips, from @barnson, says what the title says: Tooltips are cool and ThmUtil should have them built in. Mayhap there’s a pull request coming soon to do just that in WiX v4.0.