Software Deployment

Cool, if they put the table in the merge module then the rest "should" be easy.

I would personally not use the Wise template until they get the DIFx 2.0 dll in there or you should at least take the time to swap out the DIFxAPP.dll in the template MSI. The DIFx 2.0 toolkit can be found at:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/install/DIFxtls.mspx

Before you even try DIFxApp.dll I would use DPInst found in the toolkit to make sure that DIFx can even install the driver correctly. If that works then you can move on to DIFxApp.dll. You should be able to use the Wise template with another program just by opening the template MSI and following these directions:

3. In Setup Editor, select the Components tab. Right-click on the INF component displayed on the left side of the screen, and select New > File. Then, select the INF file that is associated with your device driver.

4. After adding the INF file, right-click on the "INF" component displayed on the left side of the screen, and select Details. The Components Details dialog will appear. Change the Directory field to match the target location of this INF file, and change the File Key Path field to be the INF file that you just added to the installation.

5. Continue authoring the installation.


These steps should be better worded to tell you to add the supporting files for the .inf file in the same directory as the inf file. Of course the steps are Wise specific but you should be able to easily translate the modifications to another tool because this is all standard MSI manipulation. I have never tried this and I usually do not use the driver template because I am usually installing drivers along with a setup capture so I prefer to do my setup caputre then add the DIFx specific stuff afterwards. If you are only installing a driver then I definately recommend using the template with the V2.0 DIFxApp.dll. It can be a little confusing to do it without the template because there are many more manual edits that must be done to the MSI.

There is a utility called DPinst that collects all the XP certifyed drivers and makes it very easy to distribute them even to users without administrator rights.
Search for DPINST.EXE

Thanks for the link kkaminsk.

Would it be easier for me to just use the difxapp merge module? I've read through the documentation for difxapp and it's starting to make sense to me.

cheers

It really depends on your comfort level with editing MSIs. The Merge Module will work but you have to make custom tables in the MSI (oooh!). That is why there is the template so that you don't have to understand the custom tables required to configure DIFx to function. I have not checked the DIFx 2.0 documentation as to where the specifics are but 1.0 did contain the necessary details in one of the documents.

I think MS must have improved the ease of use in v2 then. If I've read the documentation right, the module contains a blank msidriverpackages table and 5 customactions for processing, installing, uninstalling, rollback and cleanup.

As I understand it, I just need to create a new feature and component, include the inf file in this component then specify it in the msidriverpackages table. I hope it will be that simple anyway.