Make a non-COM Component in an Existing Package Private

An administrator can force a client application to always use the same copy of a non-COM server in an existing package—without affecting other applications—by specifying an isolated components relationship between the server and client. This installs a private copy of the server component to a location used exclusively by the client application. The administrator needs to use transforms or a package authoring tool to do the following:

• Put the server DLL and the .exe client in separate components.
• Enter a record in the IsolatedComponent table with the client component in the Component_Shared column and the client application in the Component_Application column. Include the IsolateComponents action in the sequence tables.
• Set the msidbComponentAttributesSharedDllRefCount bit in the Component table record for Component_Shared. The installer requires this global refcount on the shared location to protect the shared files and registration in cases where there is sharing with other installation technologies.
• Windows Installer version 1.1 or later is required.

Note that if no shared registered paths have been authored across components, Windows Installer version 1.1 or later may not be required. In this case, the administrator could just alter the Directory and Component tables such that the files of Component_Shared get installed to the same folder as Component_Application.