[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]
Because the installation database contains all the information about the installation of a product, the Microsoft® Windows® installer provides many standard features that enable the user to access, retrieve, and manipulate the information in the database tables. Database access is required to create a custom installation package.
The material in this section is primarily for developers who want to write tools that create new installer packages and who therefore need detailed information about the installer's relational database. Complete installer packages are adopted by application developers as an efficient means to manage the installation of their applications. Some knowledge of the installation database is also useful to application developers and administrators who want to modify existing installer packages and installation processes using custom actions. For general information on the installer and component management technology, see About Windows Installer.
The installer has many standard features for database access. The About Database Access section gives a general description of installer features providing table querying and manipulation capabilities. For situations that are not addressed directly by these standard access features, additional database access functionality can be created by using Custom Actions.
The Accessing Databases section describes common procedures used to get, open, and change information in a database table.
The Database Access Reference describes in detail all of the access functions available to manipulate the installation database.