Unlocking File Management Secrets with the Windows Explorer Properties Panel

Table of Contents

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Folder Properties Tab

Identifier

The property through which the folder can be identified or referenced by.

Name

Target Name

This filed contains the name under which the folder will be installed. The target name will override the name of the folder on your disk, allowing you to specify a custom name for the folder.

Source Name

When placing the installation files next to the MSI, Advanced Installer will create a folder structure which will contain the files. The name of a folder in this structure can be set in the “Source Name” field. This allows you to add to the project a folder with a custom name and set a more user-friendly name for it in the installation package.

Component

Create folder on target machine

This checkbox gives you the possibility to create or delete the component associated with the selected folder. If a component for the folder exists, the checkbox is checked. The following actions are allowed:

unchecked it to delete the folder’s component
check it to create a component for the folder

In some cases the folder’s component cannot be removed, therefore the checkbox is disabled and selected.

The Folder Name is localizable and pseudoformatted .

Install folder content into the parent folder

If this option is enabled, the folder content will be installed into its parent folder.

This option is useful if you want to have more files (or other resources) with the same name that will be installed in the same folder under different installation scenarios or in different build configurations. The decision on which file will be used can be made at build time or at install time.

At build time, the content of the folder that is not needed can be excluded from the Organization page by moving its components to a new feature and exclude it from a build. To decide at install time which files will be installed you must use exclusive conditions for the components in the Organization page.

When this option is being used and resources with the same name can be found in the parent folder or in other sibling folders that uses this option, some conditions must be specified in order to decide what resources will be used. Component conditions and feature exclusion from build are the mechanisms to do that.

File Options

Ensure that all files in this folder overwrite any installed target files

Using this option will also enable the “Ensure that this file overwrites any installed target file” option, under the “Edit file” dialog, in the “Version tab” , for all the files in the selected folder (including sub-folders). If this option is set or it has an indeterminate state all new files added to the project will use the maximum version. The existing files are affected only when the option is checked or unchecked.

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Unlocking File Management Secrets with the Windows Explorer Properties Panel