InstallShield MSIX Bundle Utility
Edition:The InstallShield MSIX Bundle Utility is included with the Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield.
Note:The ability to build MSIX bundle requires Windows 10 or Windows Server 2019 or later on the machine that has InstallShield.
InstallShield MSIX Bundle Utility helps you to create the MSIX Bundle package, it lets you specify the payload MSIX packages and the signing information through the graphical interface, and creates the MSIX bundle package from the configured MSIX packages.
MSIX Bundle package is a bundle of MSIX packages targeting different system architectures, language-specific assets, varying image-scale assets, or resources that apply to specific devices. MSIX Bundle helps you to pack the MSIX packages for different architectures, and the related assets packages to one entity. During the .msixbundle installation, it only installs the packages that are applicable to a device's architecture.
InstallShield lets you to build MSIX packages by using InstallShield MSIX Projects, MSI to MSIX Conversion Wizard, or Appx/MSIX Tab for a Release (Basic MSI Project). These MSIX packages can be configured to build the MSIX bundle using the MSIX bundle utility.
In order to build MSIX Bundles, the MSIX packages should be built with Universal and Desktop extensions and the minimum Windows 10 version should be set to 10.0.17763.0.
The MSIX packages targeting different platforms are ready to create the MSIX Bundle. You can launch InstallShield MSIX Bundle Utility from the InstallShield folder on the Windows Start menu, or you can also launch this tool by clicking the MSIX Bundle Utility option in the InstallShield Tools menu or ribbon.
Configuring the MSIX Bundle
To configuring the MSIX bundle, perform the following steps:
| 1. | Add the MSIX payload packages by clicking the Add button. |
| 2. | Provide the signing certificate information to sign the MSIX Bundle package, if necessary. |
| 3. | Provide the output file name for the generated MSIX Bundle Package. |
| 4. | Click the Next button to build the MSIX Bundle Package. Build progress and the generated bundle information is displayed in the Progress window. |
Once the MSIX packages and the signing information are configured, MSIX Bundle Utility validates the MSIX packages for the MSIX bundle requirements. Then, creates the MSIX bundle package and sign the MSIX bundle using the sign information provided.
InstallShield also includes support for including MSIX Bundle as packages in Advanced UI and Suite/Advanced UI projects.
Building MSIX Bundle
After configuring the MSIX packages and the signing information, the MSIX bundle build is started when the Next button is clicked. During the build, it validates MSIX packages for their consistency across the Package identity, which is the name, publisher, and version is consistent across the MSIX packages. If any mismatch found during the MSIX bundle build, then the build ends with the appropriate error information.
Apart from the Package identity, it also validates the package architecture such as:
| • | whether only one MSIX package belongs to one architecture or not |
| • | whether the MSIX package with architecture Neutral is configured with the other architecture packages. If the Neutral package is configured, you can not bundle the MSIX package with the other architecture packages. If there is any conflict, then the MSIX bundle build ends with the appropriate error information. |
Once the validation is completed, the MSIX bundle will be created based on the configured MSIX package payloads. The MSIX bundle creation may fail if any payload packages targeting older platforms in the target device family. Ensure to configure the MSIX package target device family versions appropriately to build the bundle. Once the MSIX bundle is built successfully, then the details of the bundle will be updated in the progress window along with the path.
The MSIX bundle is digitally signed with the signing information provided, and the status of the signing is updated in the progress window. You must provide the same signing information configured for the payload MSIX packages to sign the MSIX bundle successfully.
Once the successful MSIX bundle build, the progress window will be updated with the MSIX bundle path.