I have an interesting problem and I am not certain of the correct method for handling the problem.
When I do an administrative install from the MSI, of course none of the support files are copied in this process. I have read a few forum posts concerning similar issues and here is what I gather: 1. There should be some support for setup.exe /a but when I use it it acts as if it does not support the switch. Perhaps this is only supported for InstallScript MSI and not Basic MSI. 2. I have tried setup.exe /V"/a" but that does not launch an administrative install and the prerequisites try to install on the server which is not desirable.
3. I could add all the support files to MoveFile table, however, I do not want this to happen during a full install, just during an administrative install. Besides these files are not directly related to a component but are needed by custom actions in the setup.
Whatever I do, I don't want to violate the rules for a minor upgrade as the product is already distributed.
I can simply document the process, but if there is a more effective method, can someone please direct me to the appropriate method? Thanks.
Note: When I run the commandline C:\Temp\Setup.exe /a"C:\Temp_Uncompressed\" only a single folder gets copied to the directory, not all the prerequisites are copied and the setup seems to abort.
Support files are stored in an MSI table. They should not appear from an administrative install, but still should be available in the .msi file which such an install lays down.
I'm less certain about the Disk1 files, however; I think those are just placeholders so multiple-disk installs are created properly, and perhaps they're copied during the build.
I agree that the Support files are stored in the MSI file Michael, however, the Disk1 files are not. They are loose on the root of the DVD media. I needed these to be copied when trying to do an administrative install. However, they are not.
I ended up placing the files in question (DirectX 9c with dec2005 sdk files) as a Support file and changing my script to look at SUPPORTDIR instead of SOURCEDIR. We want the DX9 setup available for tech support, that is why I had them as part of Disk1.
