"INSTMSIA.EXE" Details

Hi 98 Guy,

I am sorry for not making myself clear.

The "EchoLink" I recently download can be installed on a WinXP as it is,
but in order to install it on a Win98 computer, I have to first use
"INSTMSIA.EXE" (Win98 Installer). This "installer" provides what is needed
to install "EchoLink" on a Win98 platform. I am curious what this "installer"
does so "EchoLink" can be installed on a Win98 computer.

I will use the link you provided.

Again, Thank You, John


On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:11:13 -0500, in microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
you wrote:

wrote:

I had to download "INSTMSIA.EXE"

Can anyone provide more details about "INSTMSIA.EXE" and how it
"works"?

Are you asking how the self-installation package file called
INSTMSIA.EXE works, or are you asking how the "windows installer"
installation technology works?

This will tell you want the "windows installer" is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Installer

=========
The Windows Installer (previously known as Microsoft Installer) is a
software component used for the installation, maintenance, and removal
of software on modern Microsoft Windows systems. The installation
information, and often the files themselves, are packaged in
installation packages, loosely relational databases structured as OLE
COM Structured Storages and commonly known as "MSI files", from their
default file extension. Windows Installer contains significant changes
from its predecessor, Setup API.

New features include a GUI framework and automatic generation of the
uninstallation sequence. Windows Installer is positioned as an
alternative to stand-alone executable installer frameworks such as older
versions of InstallShield and Wise (later versions of both products are
based on Windows Installer) and NSIS.
==========

I have the following versions of INSTMSIA.EXE:

1.10.1029.1
2.0.2600.1
2.0.2600.2

I likey have the most recent version (2.0.2600.2) installed on my win-98
systems.

Micro$haft is up to at least version 3 of the installer, and naturally
has not made this version available for win-98, so many .msi files can't
be installed on win-98.

Note that it's very easy to unpack an MSI file to get at the package
contents and in some or most cases install the software manually.

wrote:

The "EchoLink" I recently download can be installed on a WinXP as
it is, but in order to install it on a Win98 computer, I have to
first use "INSTMSIA.EXE" (Win98 Installer). This "installer"
provides what is needed to install "EchoLink" on a Win98 platform.

I am curious what this "installer" does so "EchoLink" can be
installed on a Win98 computer.

Some windows software is distributed in the form of .MSI files. An
entire application program is compiled into a single msi file, and this
requires the use of a Windows component known as the "Windows Installer"
to process the file and install the application.

There have been different versions of "Windows Installer" over the
years, with version 3 being (I believe) the one that's in common use
these days (at least by Microsoft itself, and other major software
companies that choose to distribute software in the msi format).

MSI version 3 is included and part of a standard Windows XP
installation. I don't know if a default installation of win-98 includes
the Windows Installer or not (I don't think it does).

When you are told that you need INSTMSIA.EXE, it's because your system
does not have the Windows Installer, or the version you have is too old
and you need a newer version.

An analogy would be that you need something like WinZip to unpack a .zip
file.

wrote in
:

The "EchoLink" I recently download can be installed on a WinXP as
it is,
but in order to install it on a Win98 computer, I have to first use
"INSTMSIA.EXE" (Win98 Installer). This "installer" provides what is
needed to install "EchoLink" on a Win98 platform. I am curious what
this "installer" does so "EchoLink" can be installed on a Win98
computer.


I have seen many indications to suggest you won't see this, but never mind..

Wise, Installshield, and Nullsoft's 'NSIS' installers use different methods.

Microsoft wanted to take some control back so they issued an installer of
their own. This is basically all you need to know unless you want to explore
the technical details. Fortunately MIS is one of the less invasive things we
can add to a W98 install, but as you say, v3 won't run there anyway.

Check out that Less MSIerables thinger, it might open the installers like ZIP
files and let you manually install the contents. But you'll need .net to run
that, which is why I don't. I think you already did the right thing, install
on somethign that runs it, then copy out the actual program files (and
registry entries if any), and see if you can transplant to W98. If so, save
all files and methods so you can do it again at need.