Reinstallation of Isolated Components

Windows Installer performs the following actions during reinstallation of an application when the package contains isolated components. Typically, Component_Shared is a DLL that is shared by Component_Application and other client executables.

Reinstallation

  • Reinstall of the files of Component_Shared into the same folder as Component_Application only if Component_Application is also being reinstalled.
  • Do not increment the client list of Component_Shared and do not increment the SharedDLL count.
  • Recreate the zero-byte file with the short file name of the key file of Component_Application. This file must be located in the same folder as Component_Application and have the extension .LOCAL.
  • Reinstall all of the resources of Component_Application as usual.

If the SharedDLL refcount for Component_Shared is more than 1, or if other products remain on the client list of Component_Shared:

  • Reinstall no files to the shared location of Component_Shared.

If the SharedDLL refcount for Component_Shared equals 1, or if there are no other remaining clients of Component_Shared:

  • Reinstall of the files of Component_Shared into the shared location using the File Versioning Rules.
  • Process all reinstall actions for Component_Shared.
  • If Component_Shared is a COM component, register the full COM path such that the installer syntaxes [$Component] and [#FileKey] point to the shared location of Component_Shared.