Darwin descriptor

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The most common method of ensuring applications remain highly available is through Windows Installer file associations. This mechanism operates very much the same way as Windows Installer shortcuts, but instead of directly linking to an application's executable file, the association is made by a registered file type. Windows Installer file associations are defined using the same mechanism that standard file associations use.

This cryptic-looking string, sometimes referred to as a "Darwin Descriptor" is actually an encoded representation of a specific product, component, and feature. If this extra value exists, Windows Installer will decode the data, and use it to perform checks against that product and component. If the component is found to be missing or corrupt, Windows Installer will launch a repair to restore the missing file or data, and finally launch the referenced application as normal, passing the appropriate command-line options to it.

While Packaging, we can use snapshot with advertising (not registry as-is) as it gives some extra entrypoints (Darwin Descriptors) to trigger a potential repair if required. If there are some problems for the application to call any COM component/ActiveX functions then Advertsing setting “Retain Registry Information as-is” works better.

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