最近在我的 MacBook 裝了 Windows 7 （學校的授權）。

前一陣子發現一個問題是 Windows 更新和任何以 Windows Installer 包裝起來的安裝程式都會爛掉。

試了好久才發現是 BootCamp 掛載 HFS+ 磁區的問題。

Windows Update 會完全無法使用（連檢查更新的畫面都是一片白，程式沒有回應），而 Windows Installer 則是安裝過程整個沉默，或是直接告訴你安裝失敗。

trace 了安裝程式的 log 才知道，它會去找最大可用磁碟分割區當暫存區。一般來說用 Mac 電腦裝 Windows ，你給 Windows 的磁區都不會太大，所以安裝程式會自動找到 HFS+ 的磁區，好死不死它又是唯讀，所以…嗯（小鄭老師調。

為甚麼這麼肯定是 HFS+ 呢？是因為我把 Mac OS X 磁區和 Time Machine 磁區兩個都 unmount 之後，問題就解決了。 = =

修改方法及完成後的畫面如下圖：（反正就是把那個掛載點移除就好了，小心不要選錯…）

圖中的「磁碟 1」是 Time Machine 的，你可以乾脆把那條線拔掉，或是在磁碟 1 的圖示上按右鍵選「離線」，也能達到類似的效果。

p.s. 基本上蘋果電腦還沒正式支援在 BootCamp 安裝 Windows 7 ，所以上面這個問題，很有可能在未來的 BootCamp Patch 會修正。

p.s. 2 Windows 7 真的很好用啊又很快，我這台 MacBook 13.3″ (Mid 2007, 沒有獨立顯卡) 跑 Windows 7 比 XP 還順 = =

p.s. 3 因為 Windows Media Center 可以接收來自電視諧調器 (TV Tuner) 的 H.264 封裝影音訊號，所以我現在可以看到公共電視的 HiHD 了~~耶~~

Over the past few months I have been hearing wonderful reviews for Microsoft’s latest Zune, the Zune HD sources such as, Leo Laporte, and Engadget HD state that it is the best Zune yet and it is finally better than the iPod, which other versions of the Zune were not. Since I and several others trust sources such as Leo Laporte and Engadget HD, I decided I would ditch my iPod for a Zune HD, boy did I make a mistake. As of the writing of this article I have not even gotten a chance to interface with the Zune hardware, for all I know the Zune still holds up to my expectations, however before I could use the Zune I needed to install the Zune software, and that’s where the trouble started. After hours upon hours of jumping through hoops of error messages and downloading components which the Zune software says I don’t have even though I do (Windows Installer 3.1) I discovered that the Zune is not compatible with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition Version 2002, excuse my language but to quote Chris in Boston, “WTF.” The whole reason why way back in 2002 I purchased Media Center for a more expensive price than XP home or even XP Pro was because Media Center was supposed to be more advanced, and as the name implies designed for media. Zune software only works with Media Center Version 2005 or higher or XP, Vista, or Windows 7. Sorry Microsoft but you need to stop lying to your customers. Apple why haven’t you addressed this in your ads? I am going to exchange my day old Zune HD for an iPod Touch.

   A fresh installation of Windows offers users a chance to get things clean and tidy from the beginning, but it also means a lot of work (which we literally hate) reinstalling applications you may have had on an older build. Even searching and downloading the latest versions of your favorite applications is very much time consuming and we are the fast movers and every single second counts.

  So here is a very simple tool for windows called Ninite (formely Volery) which allows you to create an unattended single installer for lots of popular software programs. You can choose the programs from a given list and it’ll create the installer for you.

  Ninite runs on Windows XP, Vista and 7 and works in the background 100% hands-free.

  It installs apps with default settings and say "no" to browser toolbars and other junk.

  Also it installs the latest versions of the apps you choose. Not even Ninite is installed.

How to work with it

 1. Just visit Ninite website.

2. Select the application you want ninite to install for you.

3. Once you selected the application then click on Get installer. You’ll be prompted to download a small .exe file. Save it to your desktop(any where you want to save it).

4. Now just run the .exe file, and leave it to the ninite to download and install your favourite software.

Now all your software installed and ready to use.

Enjoy!

Origineel artikel: http://www.nirmaltv.com/2009/09/27/convert-exe-files-to-msi-with-free-converter/

Artikel:

Convert EXE files to MSI with Free Converter

IF you are looking for a tool to quickly convert your exe files to MSI (Windows Installer), then this free converter might come handy. Exe to msi Converter free is a free tool to quickly convert .exe setup application to a MSI package. If an application comes without a .msi file you cannot use the deploying by using GPO. However you can publish it by making MSI package with the Exe to MSI Converter.

Creating a MSI out of this tool is very simple, all you need is to browse for the location of the set up file and key in your arguments. This tool will build a MSI package for your exe. This tool builds setup executable in to a MSI package which can be used for deployment on multiple machines via Active Directory.

The application is compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Windows Server.

> Download EXE to MSI Converter

Just found an awesome link from Microsoft`s MSDN site on Deploying VSTO solutions, enhancing setup project by adding features like installing prerequisites and other required stuff before the installation of add-in.

Here is the link

Definetely one my pet peeves about Windows Installer is how it deals with instruction set architectures (ISAs). Looking at Windows NT history, supported ISAs have come (amd64, IA-64) and gone (Alpha, PowerPC, MIPS) — yet most of the time, there was more than one ISA being officially supported. Having to ship binaries for multiple ISAs therefore always has been on the agenda for many ISVs.

Needless to say, supporting multiple ISAs requires special consideration when developing setup packages and providing separate packages — one for each ISA — has become common practice to approach this. This approach makes perfect sense: Given the incompatibility of most ISAs, nobody needs Alpha binaries on a MIPS system or amd64 binaries on a IA-64 machine, so there seems little reason to mix ISAs within a single package.

Unsurprisingly, Windows Installer, which was created somewhere around 2000, also goes this route and encourages developers to provide separate packages for each ISA.

However, with the advent of amd64/x64/IA-32e/Intel 64/whateveryoucallit, the situation has changed: Because i386 and amd64 are so closely related and compatible, there are now plenty of situations where combining binaries of differing ISAs (i.e. amd64 and i386) in a single installer package makes perfect sense. Examples for this include:

• A package comprises a shell extension as well as a standalone App. For certain reasons (maybe the use of VB6), there only is a 32 bit version of the App. The shell extension, in contrast, is available for both, i386 and amd64. Whether you put everything into one package or provide separate packages for each ISA, one of them will comprise a mixture of ISAs.
• SDKs for unmanaged code usually include .lib and .dll files for multiple architectures. Shipping separate packages for i386 and amd64 (containing different binaries but the same headers, docs, etc.) may please the Windows Installer gods, but seems redundant, a waste of disk space, and user-unfriendly.

Thanks to the msidbComponentAttributes64bit flag, mixing architectures in a single MSI package is technically possible: You mark the package as being 32 bit and set said flag for all 64-bit components. Rather than splitting your setup into multiple packages, you can conveniently combine everything into one.

When reading the documentation (and ICE requirements, more on this later) carefully though, it turns out that this is not quite what the Windows Installer team invented this flag for. Anyway, it works fine, problem solved.

Hmmm…

If only there was not ICE80.

ICE80, alas, is critical if you intend to conform to the Requirements for the Windows Vista Logo Program for Software:

Applications must use the Windows Installer (MSI) or ClickOnce for installation. Windows Installation packages must not receive any errors from the Internal Consistency Evaluators (ICEs) listed here:

1-24, 27-31, 33-36, 38, 40-57, 59, 61-63, 65, 67-72, 74-84, 86-87, 89-94, 96-99

ICE80 mainly states that (1) you should not install 64 bit components to 32 bit directories (e.g. Program Files vs. Program Files (x86)) and (2) you should not use 64 bit components in a 32 bit package.

(1) is fair enough, although it raises the question where you should install your software to without splitting it in two or violating other ICE rules. Worse yet, (2) effectively means that said way to create multi-ISA packages, creating 32 bit packages with some components marked with msidbComponentAttributes64bit, is illegal alltogether.

So to be logo’ed, there seems to be no other way than providing separate packages, maybe along with (urgh!) a meta-package that installs the other two.

If there are more important things on your schedule than getting a Vista logo, ICE80 seems like something that can safely be ignored. Indeed, this is what I have done several times, including in case of the cfix installer.

Anyway, let’s ignore ICE80 once more and hold on to the plan of building a 32-bit package containing both, 32-bit and 64-bit components.

Urgh…

For an SDK that is installed on 64-bit Windows, it will usually make sense to install both, 32 and 64 bit .lib and .dll files etc. On 32-bit Windows, installing 64-bit components may seem odd, but due to the existence of amd64 compilers for i386, it still makes sense to install them or at least offer them as optional feature.

So far, so good. Things get interesting, though, when COM registration comes into play. Naturally, a 32 bit installer package sees the system like any other 32 bit application does. Most importantly, this means that Registry Reflection and File System Redirection applies.

Now consider a package that contains both a 32-bit and a 64-bit version of some COM server, each installed to a separate directory. COM Registration either be performed through the Class or the Registry table. Provided that the msidbComponentAttributes64bit flag has been used properly, such a package will work great on 64 bit systems thanks to Registry Reflection: The regsitry entries will be written to the proper (reflected) locations and both COM servers will work properly.

Now think what happens on 32-bit Windows: (1) There is no Registry Reflection and (2) Windows Installer silently ignores msidbComponentAttributes64bit flags. Result: The installation will run just as smooth as on the 64-bit system. However, while installing the files continues to works flawlessly, the registry will be left in a less-than-optimal state: Due to the nonexistence of Registry Reflection, the registration entries of both COM servers will have been written to the same location!

Needless to say, the server whose registration entries were written first will now be unusable.

In a way, Windows Installer has taken its revenge for breaking the rules.

Bottom line: Mixing 32 and 64-bit components in a single MSI works fine in many cases, but is against the MSI rules and can lead to further problems. And while I am still convinced that providing separate, ISA-specific packages is wrong or at least inconvenient in certain situations, it is definitely the safer and “right” way to go.

(Note: Windows Installer 4.5 introduced multi-package transactions, which allow reliable and transactional multi-package setups to be built so that splitting a setup into multiple packages can be implemented without much pain. However, very few users already have Windows Installer 4.5 installed and Windows 2000 is not even supported by this release. For many of us, relying on this feature therefore is not really an option.)

We are working on a Cisco VoIP deployment and I’m currently using our 3 Altiris Deployment 6.9SP3 servers to push out the Cisco Desktop and Supervisor agents. We ran into a small snag to say the least. The cisco agents have an OS check in the MSI’s that prevent them from installing on Windows 7. Our core IT group is running Win 7 right now including the HD supervisor.

After a quick google on a super easy way to remove an OS check from an MSI I found this. Be aware that you need to go through the text you paste into notepad and replace the single and double quotes with the standard single/double quotes in notepad and save it with the .vbs extension.

After dropping the MSI’s onto the VBS they install and run in Windows 7 just fine which is not surprising considering they are vista compatible. Cheers to not waiting a week or more on an answer from cisco.

Κορυφαίες τεχνολογίες ήχου σε νέο mobo της MSI | PC Magazine
Η MSI πρόκειται να παρουσιάσει ένα νέο mobo με την κωδική ονομασία Big Bang, το οποίο θα διαφέρει αρκετά από τα υπόλοιπα προϊόντα που έχει παρουσιάσει τον τελευταίο καιρό. Το Big Bang βασίζεται στο chipset P55 της Intel, ωστόσο το ανταγωνιστικό του πλεονέκτημα είναι οι τεχνολογίες που ενσωματώνει για την καλύτερη δυνατή απόδοση του ήχου, χάρη στο chip LucidLogix Hydra 200.[next]

Es un programa que nos ayuda en las instalaciones de aplicaciones Windows, a la vez que lo actualiza y no tener problemas cuando iniciamos alguna instalación de archivos msi.

Windows Installer es utilizado por desarrolladores para comprimir sus programas y sean autoinstalables.

Window Installer Error 1720 happens because Windows installer is unable launch the relevant source files for the setup of the application software that you are attempting to install. Those files may be lost or broken. Normally the original MSI installation files will be cached in the ‘C:winntInstaller’ directory before installation is started.

How to Windows Installer Error 1720

You may need to use a PC error Fixer or registry cleaner to scan your computer. Those tools are specifically designed to rid your computer’s registry of the left over wreckage leading from unsuccessful installments. It will clear out the trouble behind unsuccessful installations by cleanup from your registry all of the unnecessary files and harmful programs that interfere with regular computer affairs. It is the one-stop solution to most of your computer malfunction troubles and can rid you of those “installation error” messages, directly..