Bootstrapping in Windows Installer
Updated: 26 Oct 2007
Bootstrapping is nothing but a process. Until the Windows Installer Service is pervasive, any software that depends on the Windows Installer being present must first ensure that the Installer is in fact present. Here's some background and the logic behind the launch sequence.
- User launches setup.exe to begin a new installation.
- The setup.exe program checks to see whether the Windows Installer Service is present. If it is, the program skips to step 6. Note that if the program is running on Windows 2000, the Windows Installer Service will always be present because it's installed as part of the operating system.
- The setup.exe program determines what platform is being used.
- If the platform is Windows 95 or Windows 98, setup.exe launches the ANSI version of InstMsi.exe to install the Windows Installer.
- If the platform is Windows NT 4, setup.exe launches the Unicode version of InstMsi.exe to install the Windows Installer.
- Setup.exe constructs an appropriate command line using the .msi file in the installation and passes it to MsiExec.exe, the actual Windows Installer launcher.
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