The Windows Installer redistributable is a software update package. See the section
Released Versions of Windows Installer
to determine which products shipped versions of the Windows Installer. The redistributable update package for a
version is made available after the release of the product that ships with a specific Windows Installer
version.
Obtaining the Windows Installer Redistributable
- You can find all the available Windows Installer redistributables at the
Microsoft Download Center.
- The download for the Windows Installer 4.5 redistributable package is available at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=101159.
- The name of the redistributable that installs Windows Installer 4.5 on x86-based computers running Windows Vista, Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1), and Windows Server 2008 is Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x86.MSU.
- The name of the redistributable that installs Windows Installer 4.5 on x64-based computers running Windows Vista, Windows Vista with SP1, and Windows Server 2008 is Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x64.MSU.
- The name of the redistributable that installs Windows Installer 4.5 on Itanium-Based Systems computers running Windows Vista, Windows Vista with SP1, and Windows Server 2008 is Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-ia64.MSU.
- The name of the redistributable that installs Windows Installer 4.5 on x86-based computers running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3) is WindowsXP-KB942288-v3-x86.exe.
- The name of the redistributable that installs Windows Installer 4.5 on x86-based computers running Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) is WindowsServer2003-KB942288-v4-x86.exe.
- The name of the redistributable that installs Windows Installer 4.5 on x64-based computers running Windows Server 2003 with SP1 and Windows Server 2003 with SP2 is WindowsServer2003-KB942288-v4-x64.exe.
- The name of the redistributable that installs Windows Installer 4.5 on Itanium-Based Systems computers running Windows Server 2003 with SP1 and Windows Server 2003 with SP2 is WindowsServer2003-KB942288-v4-ia64.exe.
- There is no redistributable that installs Windows Installer 4.0. This version of the
Windows Installer ships with Windows Vista.
- The name of the redistributable that installs Windows Installer 3.1 is
WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe. The download for the
Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable (v2)
package is available at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=889482fc-5f56-4a38-b838-de776fd4138c.
Note If you upgraded to Windows Installer 3.1 by installing
Windows Server 2003 with SP1, or an earlier version of this redistributable, you may also need to
install the
Update for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (KB898715)
to obtain all the updates available in
Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable (v2).
- The redistributable that installs Windows Installer 3.0 is
WindowsInstaller-KB884016-v2-x86.exe. The download for the
Windows Installer 3.0 Redistributable
is available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5fbc5470-b259-4733-a914-a956122e08e8.
- The Windows Installer 2.0 used a previous naming convention for the redistributable:
Instmsi.exe. The redistributable for installing or upgrading
to Windows Installer 2.0 on Windows 2000 should not be used to install or
upgrade Windows Installer 2.0 on Windows Server 2003 and
Windows XP.
The download for the
Windows Installer 2.0 Redistributable for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000
is available at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4b6140f9-2d36-4977-8fa1-6f8a0f5dca8f.
Installing the Windows Installer Redistributable
The Windows Installer 4.5 resdistributable is provided for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems as a .msu file and should be installed using the Windows Update Stand-alone Installer (Wusa.exe.)
The Windows Installer 4.5 redistributable for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems can be installed using the following command line syntax and options.
The Windows Installer 3.1 and Windows Installer 3.0 redistributables can be installed using the following command line syntax and options.
Syntax
Use the following syntax to install the redistributables for Windows
Installer 4.5 on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
<Name of the Redistributable>[<options>]
Command-Line Options
The Windows Installer redistributable software update packages use the following case-insensitive command-line
options.
| Option | Description |
|---|
| /norestart | Prevents the redistributable package from asking the user to reboot even if it had to replace files that
were in use during the installation.
If the update package is invoked with this option, it returns ERROR_SUCCESS_REBOOT_REQUIRED if it had to
replace files that were in use.
If it did not have to replace files that were in use, it returns ERROR_SUCCESS. See the remarks section for
additional information on delayed reboots.
|
| /quiet | For use by applications that redistribute the Windows Installer as part of a bootstrapping application.
A user interface (UI) is not presented to the user. The bootstrapping application should check the return
code to determine whether a reboot is needed to complete the installation of the Windows Installer.
|
| /help | Displays help on all the available options. |
Delayed Restart on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008
The /norestart command-line option prevents wusa.exe from restarting the computer. However, if a file being updated by the MSU package is in use, then the package is not applied to the computer until the user restarts the computer. This means that applications that use the Windows Installer 4.5 redistributable for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 cannot use the Windows Installer 4.5 functionality until the computer is restarted.
Delayed Restart on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
It is recommended that the Windows Installer service be stopped when using the update package. When the package
is run in full UI mode it detects if the Windows Installer service is running and requests the user to stop the
service. If the user continues without stopping the service, the update replaces Windows Installer.
Bootstrapping applications that use the
redistributable package to install the Windows Installer with another application can require an extra system
reboot in addition to reboots needed to install the application. The delayed reboot option is only recommended
for cases where it is necessary to eliminate an extra reboot caused by installing files that are in use.
Developers should do the following in their setup application to use the delayed reboot option.
- Call the redistributable package with the /norestart command-line option.
- Treat the return of either ERROR_SUCCESS or ERROR_SUCCESS_REBOOT_REQUIRED as meaning success.
- Invoke Msiexec on the application's package and run other setup code specific to the application. If the
setup application uses MsiInstallProduct, then
the application must load MSI.DLL from the system directory. If no reboot occurs and if the redistributable
returned ERROR_SUCCESS_REBOOT_REQUIRED, then prompt the user for a reboot to complete the setup of the Windows
Installer binaries. If a reboot occurs, no additional steps are required.
Note Applications that call LoadLibrary on the new
MSI.DLL after the redistributable package returns success must ensure that an older version of MSI.DLL has not
already been loaded within the process. If an older version of MSI.DLL was loaded, it must be unloaded from the
process address space prior to calling LoadLibrary for
the new MSI.DLL.
For more information, see
Windows Installer Bootstrapping.
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Build date: 10/29/2009