Source Lists for Office 2000 Installation Locations in Windows Installer

ID: Q243333

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

SUMMARY

The Windows installer provides source resiliency for features that are installed on-demand in the form of a source list. Programs that rely heavily on network resources for on-demand installations are succeptible to source failures if the source location should change for any reason or should they become damaged.

MORE INFORMATION

The source list contains the locations the installer searches for installation packages. The entries in this list can be network locations, Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), or a CD-ROM path. If one of these sources does not respond, the installer automatically tries the next source.

The installer manages the source list for each program you install. To improve performance the installer stores its data in the registry at the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products\Package code number\SourceList

Each source list is program specific. The SourceList registry key contains the information required to build a source list for each program. The key resides in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive so it follows users that have user-assigned roaming profiles.

The LastUsedSource value uses the following three types of sources:

Media (m)
Network (n)
URL (u)

The LastUsedSource is specified using an ordered source type and interger index within the particular list for that type. For example,

n;1;\\installpoint\Applications\Office\Word\bin

A "source" is a fully qualified path to a folder, not a fully qualified path to an installer package. Entries in the source list are folder paths. The name of a package is stored seperately as the PackageName value. For all sources in a particular source list that belong to a program, the package name is identical.

List of Network Sources

The installer maintains a list of alternative install points. The installer uses the alternative list if the LastUsedSource install point is not available. The list of network sources is stored in the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products\Package code number\SourceList\Net

List of Media Sources

There is usually not more than a single source in the Media Sourcelist because there is usually only one source media. In the case of multi-disk installations, there are multiple entries in the Media SourceList.

NOTE: Microsoft programs that are available on CD-ROM and floppy disks have multiple entries in the Media Sourcelist.

The Media Sourcelist is in the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products\Package code number\SourceList\Media

The DiskPrompt value is the friendly name that describes all CD-ROMs or other media disks.

List of URL Sources

URL sources are handled the same way as media sources. The list of URL sources is stored in the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products\Package code number\SourceList\URL

When you need to install or repair a feature from the source media, the installer performs the following steps:

The installer retrieves the PackageName value from the SourceList key, if available.

The insaller appends a backslash (\) and the PackageName value to the value in the LastUsedSource key.

The resulting fully qualified folder path to an installer package is checked for the existence of the package file. On media sources the first disk contains the MSI file and the installer verifies that the volume label is correct. If the package file exists the source is valid.

If the package file does not exist, the source is invalid. The installer begins looking through the list of network sources and the list of URL resources. By default, the installer looks for network drives first, CD-ROM or floppy disks second, and then URL sources last.

When a valid source is found, that source is cached in memory. If the source is validated during a session, and then the source becomes unavailable, the installer does check for valid sources again. You receive an error message to install the component or feature again.

If there is no valid source after the installer checks all the sources, you can browse manually to find the MSI file.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbsetup
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbinfo