Can we have certain registry keys added as 'create' only?

[wesley]

hmm.. No reply from Daryll. Don't know if anyone else will come accross this problem, but if you do and find yourself needing to update thousands of Add registry Key entries from "Create and Remove on Uninstall" to just "Create" You can open the .msifact file in any text editor and manually do it. Search for xml looking like

<SetupItem Type="2" ID="RegKey_0034" ComponentID="YOUR.dll">
<Root>1</Root>
<Key>CLSID</Key>
<Actions>2</Actions>
<UserPerimssions/>
</SetupItem>

Dont use Find and Replace as the elements you need to change (the line "<Actions>2</Actions>") also appear in the Set registry Value commands and tell MSIFactor to Prepend registry keys as opposed to the default.

I've written a crappy little VB.NET tool to do it.

To use... Create a new windows forms Application. On your form add 2 buttons (One named 'btnBrowse' and one named 'btnGo') and a text box (named 'txtFile'). In your form code paste the following...

************************************************** **********
Private Sub cmdBrowse_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmdBrowse.Click
If OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog() = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
txtFile.Text = OpenFileDialog1.FileName
Else
Exit Sub
End If

End Sub


Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
OpenFileDialog1.Filter = "XML files (*.xml)|*.xml|MSI Factory 2.01 Files (*.msifact)|*.msifact|All Files (*.*)|*.*"
OpenFileDialog1.FilterIndex = 2
SaveFileDialog1.Filter = OpenFileDialog1.Filter
SaveFileDialog1.FilterIndex = 2
End Sub


Private Sub btnGo_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnGo.Click

Dim Xele As XElement
Dim lCountModified As Integer
Dim lintLevel As Integer = 0
Dim lstrSave As String

Xele = XElement.Load(txtFile.Text.ToString)

lCountModified = ModifyRegElements(Xele)

Console.WriteLine("Modified " & lCountModified.ToString)

If SaveFileDialog1.ShowDialog() = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
lstrSave = SaveFileDialog1.FileName

Dim xmlws As New XmlWriterSettings
With xmlws
.Indent = False
.OmitXmlDeclaration = True
.NewLineHandling = NewLineHandling.None
End With

Dim xw As XmlWriter

xw = XmlWriter.Create(lstrSave, xmlws)
Xele.Save(xw)
xw.Flush()
xw.Close()
xw = Nothing
xmlws = Nothing
MsgBox("File Saved")

xmlws = Nothing
End If


Xele = Nothing

End Sub

'recursive routine to modify all elements of type SetupItem
Public Function ModifyRegElements(ByVal lelement As XElement) As Integer

Dim lblnFound As Boolean = False
Dim lcount As Integer

If lelement.Name.ToString = "Actions" Then
If lelement.Value.ToString = "2" Then
'Check parent elemts (SetupItem) Type attribute is a 2
Dim ltyp As XElement

ltyp = lelement.Parent

For Each att In ltyp.Attributes
If att.Name = "Type" Then
If att.Value = 2 Then
lelement.Value = "1"
lcount = lcount + 1
End If
Exit For
End If
Next
End If
ElseIf lelement.Elements.Count > 0 Then
'Console.WriteLine("level:- " & level.ToString & vbCrLf & "Kids = " & lelement.Elements.Count)
For Each ele2 In lelement.Elements
'Console.WriteLine("Modifying Kid:- " & ele2.Name.ToString)
lcount += ModifyRegElements(ele2)
Next
End If

Return lcount
End Function
************************************************** *****
All it does is replace the <Action>2</Action> tags with <Action>1</Action> in every Add registry Key command. It will then save a copy of your original file. Use at your own risk.

[wesley]

Any news Daryll

Hi Daryll, Has anything been done abouit this issue? I assume not as these posts are over a year old. My organisation has just paid for a license for MSI Factory yesterday, on my recommendation. I'm pretty new to creating MSI installs and have been using MSI Factory for around 2 to 3 weeks and have been please at how well it works de-mystifying the WIX etc. But... I'm using the method Keiths123 has outlined, to register dlls / ocxs etc and I guess I didn't pay enough attention but one of my colleagues tested my msi out on his machine. Installed perfectly. After Uninstallation, it's bricked his PC! We've tried all manner of things to get the system operating again to no avail. There really should be some sort of warning when importing registry settings as novice users like myself will fall into this trap!

[Darryl]

I've submitted your comments to be looked at, thank you.

REF: 18930

[Keiths123]

If I go to System Editors, Registry, Import and then select a DLL it creates the "Add Registry Key" folder with a bunch of new registry keys, all of them with a default of "CreateAndRemoveOnUninstall".

Can this be changed so it doesn't remove the following keys on uninstall:
HKCR\AppID
HKCR\CLSID
HKCR\Interface
HKCR\TypeLib

I normally go through and manually change all of these myself as you can really damage a machine if you don't.

It would also be very useful if these keys were only added once. If you have more than one dll in an install that needs registering, it will create a top level key for each file that is selected from the import function.