ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT and Sequencing

Heath Stewart

Sequencing Windows Installer patches is typically straight forward but when the original product install or a previous, non-superseded patch defines ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT as 1 in the Property table a custom supersedence plan is necessary to support writing Add/Remove Program registry keys correctly with patch supersedence and sequencing in mind.

1. The Dangers of ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT
   Using the ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT Windows Installer property can leave your Add/Remove Program entries behind.
2. A Reason for ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT
   Reasons for setting ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT to 1 despite the dangers.
3. Working with ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT
   How to work around the issues with ARP when defining ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT=1.
4. Supporting our Lifecycle Policy with ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT
   How to support N and N-1 with the workaround for defining ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT=1.
5. A Better Way of Working with ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT
   How to support custom supersedence when you have to manage patch-specific registry keys manually without using a lot of custom code.

Heath Stewart Principal Software Engineer, Azure SDK

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