How to create an installable layout for the WinFX Runtime Components

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I have previously posted instructions that can be used to download the individual pieces of the Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions and create a network install point so that you do not need to use the download functionality in the Express Edition setup.exe each time you want to install on a new system.

The WinFX Runtime Components uses the same logic as the Express Editions to manage downloads prior to installation. I have heard from a few customers who received errors from this setup.exe package while trying to download pieces of the WinFX Runtime Components, which prevented them from installing. Therefore, I decided to post instructions for downloading the individual pieces of the WinFX Runtime Components so that you can stage the installer on a network and remove the automatic download feature from the equation when trying to install it.

The following steps will allow you to manually assemble an installable layout for the WinFX Runtime Components. In this example, I will use the latest currently available version (beta 2), but once the final version of the WinFX Runtime Components ships, the steps will be nearly the same.

  1. Download the web download bootstrapper for the WinFX Runtime Components and save it to your local hard drive
  2. Create a new folder named c:\winfx (or one of your own choosing)
  3. Extract the contents of the web download bootstrapper to the folder c:\winfx by running winfxsetup.exe /x:c:\winfx
  4. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu
  5. Go to c:\winfx and open the file baseline.dat in a text editor such as Notepad
  6. For each of the components listed below, follow the set of additional steps listed below to download them and place them in the correct location.

Note: If you know ahead of time that one or more of the components will already be installed on your target operating system, you can skip the step listed below to download and stage the component(s) that you already have installed.

Windows Installer 3.0

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\msi30
  2. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp90] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=38552
  3. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file WindowsInstaller-KB884016-v2-x86.exe to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\msi30

RGB Rast (x86)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\rgbrast
  2. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\rgbrast\x86
  3. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp136] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=56151
  4. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file RGB9RAST_x86.msi to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\rgbrast\x86

RGB Rast (x64)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\rgbrast
  2. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\rgbrast\x64
  3. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp137] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=56158
  4. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file RGB9RAST_x64.msi to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\rgbrast\x64

MSXML 6.0 Parser (x86)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\msxml
  2. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp70] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=49593
  3. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file msxml6.msi to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\msxml

MSXML 6.0 Parser (x64)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\msxml
  2. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\msxml\x64
  3. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp104] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=49601
  4. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file msxml6.msi to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\msxml\x64

WIC Installer (x86)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\wic
  2. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp209] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=62438
  3. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file WIC_X86_ENU.exe to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\wic

WIC Installer (x64)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\wic
  2. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\wic\x64
  3. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp210] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=62439
  4. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file WIC_X64_ENU.exe to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\wic\x64

.NET Framework 2.0 (x86)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\dotnetframework
  2. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp18] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=51424
  3. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file dotnetfx.exe to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\dotnetframework

.NET Framework 2.0 (x64)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\dotnetframework
  2. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\dotnetframework\x64
  3. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp27] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=51431
  4. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file netfx64.exe to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\dotnetframework\x64

Windows Communication Foundation (x86)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\wcf
  2. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp98] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65594
  3. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file wcf.exe to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\wcf

Windows Communication Foundation (ia64)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\wcf
  2. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\wcf\ia64
  3. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp99] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65596
  4. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file wcf_x64.exe to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\wcf\ia64

Windows Communication Foundation (x64)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\wcf
  2. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\wcf\x64
  3. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp100] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65595
  4. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file wcf_x64.exe to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\wcf\x64

Windows Presentation Foundation (x86)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\wpf
  2. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp101] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65592
  3. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file wpf.msi to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\wpf

Windows Presentation Foundation (x64)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\wpf
  2. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\wpf\x64
  3. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp103] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65593
  4. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file wpf_x64.msi to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\wpf\x64

Windows Workflow Foundation (x86)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\winws
  2. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp109] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65601
  3. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file WF_3.0_x86.msi to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\winws

Windows Workflow Foundation (ia64)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\winws
  2. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\winws\ia64
  3. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp110] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65602
  4. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file WF_3.0_ia64.msi to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\winws\ia64

Windows Workflow Foundation (x64)

  1. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\winws
  2. Make a new folder named c:\winfx\wcu\winws\x64
  3. Open a web browser and build a URL by typing https://go.microsoft.com/ and appending the data stored in the URL value in the [gencomp111] section of baseline.dat. In this example, the desired URL is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65600
  4. Navigate to the URL that you created in step 2 and choose to save the file WF_3.0_x64.msi to the folder c:\winfx\wcu\winws\x64

Note: In addition to the above components, the WinFX Runtime Components contains a set of language packs that its setup will attempt to install on non-English operating systems. However, there are a lot of them, and I am going to omit them from this blog post for the sake of brevity.

If you are planning to install the WinFX Runtime Components on a non-English OS, you will need to follow steps similar to what I have listed above to download and stage the appropriate language pack. You can find the [gencomp] section and URL that you will need by searching through the contents of baseline.dat and finding the appropriate language. If you have any trouble figuring out how to do this, please contact me and I will attempt to help out.