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My name is Bob and I’m a setup geek. I work at Microsoft in ACES Studio on build, setup, and servicing for Flight Simulator and other not – so – secret products.

When my day job isn’t also a late-night-and-weekend-job, I volunteer time on the core WiX virtual team. I did a lot of the WixUI dialog library and other odds and ends in the core toolset, custom actions, and extensions.

In this blog I plan to talk about setup in general and WiX in particular, both theory and practice. For example, talking about creating Service Pack 1 for Flight Simulator X is on my list: Lots of theory about why it’s difficult to service a product when you don’t plan for it in advance and lots of practical information about how it’s possible to do it anyway with enough extra work.

The blog title and domain name – Joy of Setup – is inspired by the book Joy of Cooking. (No, not any of those other Joy of titles, thank you very much.) Like setup, cooking is an art and a science with strict rules to follow for best results – and occasionally disastrous results if you break them. Both need quality tools and ingredients for best results. Both can provide a pleasant user experience throughout or be unpalatable from first sight (not to mention bite/byte).

Let’s get cooking.