Windows Installer Editor Reference
359
Working With Source Paths
Reg. Key
Specify the complete key name of the registry value that contains a directory
path. The registry browser that appears shows only key names (folder icons).
You specify the value in Reg. Value below.
Reg. Value
Select the value to pull a directory name from. This list shows the values
contained in the key you selected above.
Replace When Matched
Mark this to activate this path variable. If this is cleared, this path variable has
no effect on files you add to the installation.
4. Click OK.
See also:
About Path Variables
on page 356
Source Paths in an Installation
Note
(Visual Studio integrated editor only.) This feature is independent of the Configuration
Manager feature in Visual Studio, which lets you store source files in Release and Debug
directories.
Paths to files in an installation can break if you:
z
Move files that are part of the installation to a new directory on your computer or
network.
z
Move the installation file itself from your computer to another computer.
z
Use relative paths and then move the installation file.
z
Rename a directory.
If paths are broken, then during compile, error messages appear in the Task List
concerning the files that could not be opened. Rather than adding the files again, you
can specify new source directories for these files. If files with broken paths should not be
in the installation, you can use the Remove Missing Files tool to remove them.
See
Removing Files With Missing or Invalid Source Paths
on page 409.
The Convert Source Paths dialog box lets you change the directories that contain an
installation’s files. You can also change all the directories to either relative or UNC
(Uniform Naming Convention) paths. If you change directories to relative paths, then
the installation can be opened on any computer that has the same relative directory
structure. If you change the directories to UNC paths, you can leave the source files on a
server but open the installation from any computer on the local network.
Whether the path to a file is stored depends on what kind of file you’re working in. When
you add a file to an .WSI or .MSI, the path to the file is stored, and each time you
compile, the file is recompressed into the resulting .MSI. However, if you open an .MSI
that was compiled from a .WSI, it does not store paths to the files because the files are
encapsulated inside the .MSI. You cannot change the source paths of files encapsulated
inside an .MSI.