MSI v5.0 features in WiX v3.0 • Joy of Setup

MSI 5.0 ships in the recently released Windows 7 beta. When the Windows 7 beta SDK was released, Rob and I had the detailed information we needed to add support for those features in WiX. A week and a day later, WiX v3.0.4917.0 includes that support.

What’s new?

In a long-awaited nod to modern UIs, MSI 5.0 supports a hyperlink control. In WiX authoring, the hyperlink control using “Hyperlink” as the Control/@Type attribute:

<Control Id="MyHyperlinkControl1" Height="20" Width="100" Type="Hyperlink" X="5" Y="5">   
  <Text><![CDATA[<a href="<http://www.joyofsetup.com/">>Joy of Setup</a>]]></Text>   
</Control>

The MsiPrint control event supports printing a rich-edit control, much like the WixUI support for printing the license agreement.
The MsiLaunchApp control event launches an installed file, like the WixShellExec custom action.
The MsiShortcutProperty table supports adding properties to shortcuts. WiX exposes this functionality with ShortcutProperty elements as children of the Shortcut element.
The MsiLockPermissionsEx table supports a richer set of security settings, like WixUtilExtension’s PermissionEx element and custom actions. WiX supports MsiLockPermissionsEx with a PermissionEx element in the WiX (not WixUtilExtension) namespace. MsiLockPermissionsEx and the new PermissionEx element use security descriptor definition language (SDDL) to describe permissions. Both also support conditionally applying permissions. See Securing Resources for details.
The MsiServiceConfig and MsiServiceConfigFailureActions tables add service-configuration options, like WixUtilExtension’s ServiceConfig element and custom actions. WiX supports the tables with a ServiceConfig element that, like the PermissionEx element, is in the WiX namespace.