Comments on: Redistributing Application Components using Merge Modules

By: Justanotherperson

Justanotherperson — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 07:08:00 +0000

And what about the joy of 3rd part merge modules…and patching…and security?

Security vulnerability #473 in Product that you have in 48 packages.

First, you are assuming that the said 3rd party vendor updates their MSM’s as quickly as they do their installs, and secondly that they do at all.

Then you still have to go and update all of them.

MSM’s were a nice concept that turned into something that ideally I would avoid almost always.

By: Webinar: Best Practices for Building Installation in Visual Studio 2010

Webinar: Best Practices for Building Installation in Visual Studio 2010 — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:28:10 +0000

[...] Redistributing Application Components using Merge Modules [...]

By: Did you know these Windows Installer File Types?

Did you know these Windows Installer File Types? — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:00:09 +0000

[...] this article to understand, how an Merge Module (.msm) [...]

By: Bhuvana

Bhuvana — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:56:14 +0000

The following link has more information on creating merge modules in general and in Wise Package Studio.
http://www.purepackaging.com/mergemodules.php

By: Bhuvana

Bhuvana — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:42:46 +0000

It is recommended that a new merge module should be created for each successive version of a component in order to avoid version conflicts.
Check the following Microsoft KB for MSI DB properties to handle reference count & permanent explicity.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255684

By: msigeek

msigeek — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:04:29 +0000

When a merge module is merged into the .msi, all the info and
resources required to install the components delivered by the merge module are incorporated into
the application's .msi file itself. Because all the information
needed to install the components is delivered as a single file, the use of merge modules can
eliminate many instances of version conflicts, missing Registry entries, and improperly installed files.

For example, if the Crystal Reports is been added as a Merge Module, it would avoid different microsoft applications using different versions of crystal report dlls. Also, as we have the signing and GUID of MSM components, even Installer takes care of reference counts and version clash.

By: Kiran

Kiran — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:55:06 +0000

How does merge module eliminate version clashing, can anyone little bit elaborate with example.

By: Did you know these Windows Installer File Types?

Did you know these Windows Installer File Types? — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:54:39 +0000

[...] registry, and other system changes that installs a discrete portion of the application. Read this article to understand, how an MSM [...]