Final version of Windows Installer 4.5 redistributable and SDK now available for download

As announced earlier today in this post on the Windows Installer team blog, the final version of Windows Installer 4.5 has been released and can now be downloaded by using the following links:

The redistributable package supports installing on the following platforms:

  • Windows XP SP2 and SP3
  • Windows Server 2003 SP1 and SP2
  • Windows Vista and Windows Vista SP1
  • Windows Server 2008

As described in more detail in this MSDN topic, in this knowledge base article and on the Windows Installer team blog, Windows Installer 4.5 includes the following key features:

  • Multiple package transactions - create a single transaction that spans multiple packages; if any of the packages fail to install, you can roll back all packages in the transaction
  • Embedded UI handler - embed a custom UI handler in a Windows Installer package; this makes a custom UI easier to integrate
  • Embedded chainer - used to add packages to a multiple package transaction; you can use an embedded chainer to enable installation events across multiple packages
  • Shared component patching resiliency during uninstalls - ensures that the most recent version of a component is available to all the products after an uninstall
  • Custom action execution during update uninstalls - allows an update to add or change a custom action so that the custom action is called when the update is uninstalled
  • Update supersedence resiliency - correct for changes in the FeatureComponent table during supersedence

The Windows Installer documentation on MSDN has also been refreshed to include detailed information about the Windows Installer 4.5 features.