The Windows installer was formerly called as Microsoft Installer which is an engine for maintenance, installation and for removing of software from modern day Microsoft Windows systems. The information for installation and also sometimes the files are packed in the Windows installer package. The insecurely relational database structure as the OLE structured Storage files are generally called as MSI files basically from their default file extension. The Windows installer also contains some significant changes from its earlier version in the Setup API. The new features include the GUI framework and the automatic generation of uninstallation sequence. This new Windows installer is basically positioned as an alternative to the complete executable installer framework like the previous versions the Wise and InstallShield and also the NSIS.

Microsoft also lets third party users to use this Windows installer as the tool for installation of frameworks so they can easily synchronize correctly with the other installers on the system and also keep the internal dataset consistent of the installed products. A few critical features like the versioning and rollback however depend on the consistent internal database for reliable operations.

The logical structure of the packages describes the installation of one or two full products and they are universally identified as GUID. These products are made of components which are categorized into different features. You should know that Windows installer does not control dependencies between the products. A single installed and operating program would be a product and not a set of programs. This product is identified by an exclusive GUID or the ProductCode property. However you should know that the product is different from the package as one MSI package can even install a number of different products. For instance the MSI can install English and French version of the same program where each of them is a different product.

The components are the least part of the product where each component is treated as a unit by the Windows Installer. For instance, the install developer cannot use the condition to identify in order to install just a single part of the component. These components can contain directories, files, shortcuts, registry keys, COM components and several other data. The users of these components cannot interact with the components directly. The components are mainly identified by the GUIDs globally and so the same component can also be shared among different features of the same package of several packages, preferably with the help of Merge Modules.

The features are basically hierarchical groups in the components and the features contain a number of components with different features. Most of the software packages would generally include one feature. However some much complex installation programs might often display a custom setup dialog box during the run time through which the users can select the required features to install and remove the unwanted ones. There are also some package authors who define their product features. For instance the word processing program would often provide the set of features executable for their program including the help files of the program and some optional spelling check features and stationery modules for the program.

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