Windows Installer 4.5 is available

View products that this article applies to.

INTRODUCTION

Microsoft Windows Installer is a component of the Windows operating system. Windows Installer provides a standard foundation for installing and uninstalling software. Software manufacturers can create the setup of their products to use Windows Installer to help make software installation, maintenance, and uninstallation straightforward and easy.

Windows Installer 4.5 is released with Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Server 2008 SP2.
And Windows Installer 4.5 is released as a redistributable for the following operating systems:

Windows XP SP2
Windows XP SP3
Windows Server 2003 SP1
Windows Server 2003 SP2
Windows Vista
Windows Vista SP1
Windows Server 2008

Important Windows Installer 5.0 is released with the following operating systems. Therefore, Windows Installer 4.5 does not apply to these operating systems.
Additionally, there is no redistributable for Windows Installer 5.0.

Windows 7
Windows 7 SP1
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
Windows 8
Windows Server 2012
Windows 8.1
Windows Server 2012 R2

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How to obtain Windows Installer 4.5 redistributable

Before you download this redistributable, you must determine whether you are running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows.

Automatic version detection result

Note If the auto detection result is not displayed on your screen, view How to determine whether a computer is running a 32-bit version or 64-bit version of the Windows operation system.

Download Windows Installer 4.5 redistributable

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:

download icon for contentauto

Download Windows Installer 4.5 now.

Note Check the following table to find which file to choose for your operating system：

Operating System	Files to choose from the Microsoft Download Center
Windows XP SP2 Windows XP SP3	For 32-bit: WindowsXP-KB942288-v3-x86.exe For 64-bit: WindowsServer2003-KB942288-v4-x64.exe For IA64 Platform: WindowsServer2003-KB942288-v4-ia64.exe
Windows Server 2003 SP1 Windows Server 2003 SP2	For 32-bit: WindowsServer2003-KB942288-v4-x86.exe For 64-bit: WindowsServer2003-KB942288-v4-x64.exe For IA64 Platform: WindowsServer2003-KB942288-v4-ia64.exe
Windows Vista Windows Vista SP1 Windows Server 2008	For 32-bit: Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x86.msu For 64-bit: Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x64.msu For IA64 Platform: Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-ia64.msu

Installation of the Windows Installer 4.5 package requires a reboot to successfully update the required binaries.

For more information, view How to obtain Microsoft support files from online services.

Virus-scan claim

Microsoft scanned this file for viruses, using the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to it.

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More Information

New and improved features in Windows Installer 4.5

The following new and improved features have been implemented in Windows Installer 4.5.

Multiple package transaction

In a multiple package transaction, you can create a single transaction from multiple packages. In a multiple package transaction, a chainer is used to dynamically include packages in the transaction. If one or more of the packages do not install as expected, you can roll back the installation.

Embedded UI handler

You can embed a custom user interface (UI) handler in the Windows Installer package. This makes a custom UI easier to integrate. You can also invoke an embedded UI handler from the Add or Remove Programs item in Control Panel. Or, you can invoke an embedded UI handler during a Windows Installer repair process.

Embedded chainer

You can use the embedded chainer to add packages to a multiple package transaction. You can use an embedded chainer to enable installation events across multiple packages. For example, you can enable install-on-demand events, repair events, and uninstall events across multiple packages.

Update supersedence resiliency

This feature lets you correct for changes in the FeatureComponent table during supersedence.

Shared component patching resiliency during uninstall

This feature makes sure that the most recent version of a component is available to all products.

Custom action execution on update uninstall

This feature lets an update add or change a custom action so that the custom action is called when an update is uninstalled.

Issues that are addressed in Windows Installer 4.5

The issues present in earlier versions of Windows Installer that are addressed in Windows Installer 4.5 are as follows:

The SeBackupPrivilege user right was missing in the Windows Installer service. This lack hindered any custom actions that needed this user right.
Some case-sensitive service-name comparisons in the InstallValidate action resulted in an unnecessary "files in use" message in Windows Vista.
When you uninstalled an update that added a new component, the component was also uninstalled. This occurred even if the component was shared by other products.

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