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Multiple Instance Installations
Windows Installer Editor Reference
See
Creating a New Release
3.
Select the Build Options page, select the new release from the Current Release
drop-down list, and select .EXE that launches external .MSI from the .EXE
Options drop-down list.
4.
Compile the installation, which creates an .EXE, an .MSI, and an .INI file.
5.
Open the .INI file, and add the following line:
CmdLine=TRANSFORMS="TransformName.mst" /i
where TransformName.mst is the name of the transform.
When you double-click the .EXE file, it reads the .INI file of the same name. (Example:
Application.EXE reads Application.INI.) When it runs the installation, it applies the
command-line option specified in the CmdLine property and the transform is applied.
These command-line options are passed to msiexec.exe, the Windows Installer
executable.
If you have multiple transforms, you can make multiple releases, and manually edit the
.INI file for each release.
Note
Multiple instance installations are supported only by the versions of Windows Installer
released with Windows XP SP1 (2.0.2600.1106), Windows Server 2003 (2.0.3790.0), or
later.
Windows Installer permits one instance of a product code to be installed per machine
and one instance to be installed per user. To install multiple instances of a product
without creating a separate installation for each instance, you can create instance
transforms to change the product code for each instance. An instance transform changes
the product code of an installation or patch and can isolate its data so that multiple
instances of the application can be installed.
Example: A Web server administrator can install multiple instances of a web site
template on the same server to different virtual directories.
Guidelines
Code the application so that it can locate resources based on the instance identifier.
To create the instance identifier, you define an instance property in the base
installation and have the instance transform set the property value.
Create a base installation. For each instance to be installed, create an instance
transform. The base installation may install its own instance.
Each instance must have a unique product code and an instance identifier.
To isolate resources for each instance, install them into a location that depends on
the instance identifier.
For additional guidelines, see Authoring Multiple Instances with Instance Transforms in
the Windows Installer SDK Help.
Creating an instance transform
1.
Open the base installation or patch for which you are creating an instance
transform.
Merge Modules and Transforms
on page 207.
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