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Orca install package

Stephane Rodriguez posted an interesting comment that I hadn't thought of - it isn't the easiest thing in the world to download Orca. You have to go through the Platform SDK web-based installer tool and also install a bunch of pieces of the core SDK to get orca.msi which lets you install Orca. I have a copy of it that I downloaded and posted at https://cid-27e6a35d1a492af7.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Blog%5E_Tools/orca.zip for easier access. I hope this makes things easier for you as you debug your setup packages.

<update date="4/9/2010"> Fixed broken link to orca.zip. </update>

Comments

  • Anonymous
    July 12, 2004

    Indeed, that's better like this. Last time I checked the core platform SDK, it was 250MB or something like that. Now if you could get this in the MSDN library / Windows installer page, this would be very good (everyone googling orca gets to the Windows installer page, but then today you are automatically redirected to the core platform SDK).
    And sorry for mistaking Orcas and Orca.

  • Anonymous
    May 03, 2005
    Thank you very much for this. It is just what I needed!! You just saved me a large download when all I wanted is Orca. Much appreciated.

    Sincerely,

    lwielewi

  • Anonymous
    June 13, 2005
    Great, but the link doesn't seem to work.

  • Anonymous
    June 14, 2005
    Hi, it appears that my old ISP site was taken offline, so I've updated the link in the text of this blog post. Please let me know if the location at http://astebner.sts.winisp.net/Tools/Orca.zip does not work for you.

  • Anonymous
    June 14, 2005
    Thanks for providing this application separately!!

  • Anonymous
    August 24, 2005
    Hey thanks alot :),Saved lot of time and huge downloads.

  • Anonymous
    September 01, 2005
    THANKS to you and Google after 5 or more minutes of wandering around on the Microsoft site unsuccessfully!

  • Anonymous
    September 21, 2005
    Praise the Lord: Orca is downloadable on it's own. Ah... Last time I did this, my blood was boiling.

  • Anonymous
    October 08, 2005
    Many Thanks astebner, for that link. Although it's over 12 months since you posted the information re Orca install, I was able to find the article in Yahoo search pages. I spent the whole day trying to download MS SDK Platform and there is still over a quarter of download left so if I continued on with their original download I would have been up all night too.

  • Anonymous
    November 01, 2005
    Thanks very much!!! This is exactly what I needed! I also had problems with the download of the SDK platform, now I don't need it anymore ;-)

  • Anonymous
    December 09, 2005
    Thanks Man really needed Orca was searching for it as a seperate link, thanks to you again

  • Anonymous
    December 17, 2005
    thank you for useful topic & link.

  • Anonymous
    December 29, 2005
    Ho una linea a 56k quindi GRAZIE!!!!!!!!!!!!
    translation:
    (I have a 56k dialup connection so THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!)

  • Anonymous
    December 29, 2005
    Just another few words of thanks. Having to download a multi-megabyte SDK just to get an application I'm likely to only run once or twice is ridiculous.

  • Anonymous
    January 02, 2006
    Many thanks for the link.

  • Anonymous
    January 13, 2006
    What a star!!! Thanks a million!

  • Anonymous
    January 26, 2006
    Many, many thanks for this.

  • Anonymous
    February 07, 2006
    Thanks a lot Aaron, very handy link.

    You posted this article 18 months ago.  Do you have any idea whether this download is still the latest Orca?  Have you been updating the file?  I don't expect you to go to all that trouble, I was just wondering.

    Thanks again,
    David

  • Anonymous
    February 08, 2006
    Hi David - I updated the Orca package once the MSI SDK for MSI 3.1 shipped.  However, I don't know if I will continue to update it forever  :-)  The most reliable way to get the latest and greatest version of Orca is to install the Platform SDK, but for those of you who can't take the hundreds of megs of download to do that for whatever reason, this is available as a convenience.

  • Anonymous
    February 08, 2006
    Great post. It's an ordeal to download the simplest and smallest of tools from the microsoft site. They really have a warped mind.
    This is so much easier.

  • Anonymous
    February 09, 2006
    Thank you so much! I wasted more than half an hour meandering on Microsoft's website looking for this download. Later, I googled your site! Thanks again!

  • Anonymous
    February 12, 2006
    that was great.i reached here after contemplating on whether to go for such a big download on microsoft website. thank you.

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    THANKS to you and Google, after unsuccessfull download of SDK, finally I found the Orca over here.

  • Anonymous
    February 27, 2006
    THANKS THANKS THANKS THANKS

    TimeSaver deluxe

  • Anonymous
    March 04, 2006
    many thanx! very encouraged!
    thank you 1.000.000 times

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2006
    Thanx a lot...

  • Anonymous
    March 12, 2006
    Hi many many Thanks to Stephane Rodriguez  for providing orca.zip

    Mohan

  • Anonymous
    March 13, 2006
    How to use ORCA ?

  • Anonymous
    March 13, 2006
    Hi Siti - Once you install Orca, you can right-click on an MSI and choose Edit with Orca and that will allow you to view and edit the contents of an MSI file.  Also, there is some information about Orca at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/msi/setup/orca_exe.asp.  Hope this helps!

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    April 05, 2006
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    November 30, 2006
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