Open topic with navigation

MSDE 2000 Object for NT Platforms

InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition

The MSDE 2000 object enables the installation of support for MSDE 2000.

To add the object to your installation project:

Note: The InstallShield MSDE 2000 Object for NT Platforms works only on Windows NT-based operating systems. If end users run the installation on a Windows 9X platform (and MSDE 2000 needs to be installed), they receive a message saying that the setup cannot install the MSDE 2000 object on the machine. Then the installation exits. The end user will have to install the MSDE 2000 object and then rerun the setup.

This limitation is because of a incompatibility of Windows Installer and the MSDE 2000 setup itself. The MSDE 2000 setup is a Windows Installer (.msi) setup. The only way one .msi can launch another .msi is as a nested .msi custom action. However, the MSDE 2000 readme file specifically says that you cannot install MSDE 2000 as a nested .msi custom action.

The only other option is to launch it is in the InstallUISequence. With this method, the InstallUISequence installs the MSDE 2000 object and the InstallExecuteSequence installs your application. This works on Windows NT-based machines because each sequence is run in a separate thread. However, on Windows 9x systems, both sequences are run in the same thread. This makes the MSDE 2000 setup fail with an error of "another setup is currently in progress." Therefore, end users cannot install the MSDE 2000 object on a Windows 9x machine as part of your installation (if your installation is Windows Installer based). This would be the case even if you tried to create your own custom action to install the MSDE 2000 object on Windows 9X machines.

See Also

Installing MSDE 2000 Merge Modules for Another Language