File System

The File System view is opened by default when opening a setup project file. It can also be opened from the workspace toolbar as shown below.

MSIStudio provides an Explorer type view of the desired target file system after the setup package has been deployed.

Varied folder icons are used to differentiate between Windows System folders and folders that are created by the setup package. Selecting a folder will display its files and shortcuts. The Properties Window can be used to alter the attributes of these objects. Files can be added to the project using menu options or drag and drop from Windows Explorer.

Dynamic Folders can be created. These point to a particular folder on the developer machine and the contents of this folder and optionally subfolders are added to the project at compile time. This is especially useful for projects that contain lots of media or data files.

When adding DLL files, COM information can optionally be extracted. The extraction takes place in a sandboxed memory location by registering the DLL, creating project Registry entries for all the data, and then deleting the temporary memory location. Class and Typelib entries are created whenever possible as these types of object are supported natively by Windows Installer. It is also possible to self-register the DLL at install time although it is not recommended to allow the setup to run executable code outside the control of Windows Installer.

Shortcuts are also displayed in the File System View. Their behaviour is more complex depending on whether the shortcut is advertised or regular (non-advertised).

Advertised Shortcuts
These are shortcuts to files that are part of the installation package. They are called advertised because they make use of the Windows Installer advertisment feature. When a product is initially installed, some of it's features can be set to install only when they are first required. This is triggered by the user selecting a shortcut to a file which hasn't been installed. The feature that contains the component / file is installed silently in the background although the user may notice a delay as the feature gets installed.

Non-advertised shortcut
These are just regular shortcuts which do not ustilise the install on demand feature of Window Installer described above. A shortcut of this type simply points to a file that is either installed with this setup package or already exists on the the target computer.