Installing the Windows 2003 SP1 Admin Pack on Windows Vista Beta 2

Hi Everyone,
            A lot of people have asked me whether Microsoft have released a version of the adminpak.msi for Windows Vista.  Unfortunately, in the current builds there is no version, and will not be until the final release.

If like me, you use the Windows Server 2003 Admin Tools very frequently this becomes a real pain, and, If you try to install the current  win server 2003 release adminpak in vista it will give you an error saying 'wrong version' which relates to the windows version check. 

However, you can create your own installer for the admin tools pak (win2k3) which WILL work on Windows Vista, and I am going to show you how!

As Mentioned above, The Windows 2003 SP 1 Admin Pack cannot be installed on a Windows Vista  machine due to a version check in the installer. Since there is also a bug with the compatibility mode for elevated processes, you must modify the MSI file to remove the version check.

Below are instructions for modifying the MSI.

Note that the same basic process may be used to correct version issues with other installers.

Download & install Windows Server 2003 SP1 Platform SDK from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A55B6B43-E24F-4EA3-A93E-40C0EC4F68E5&displaylang=en

Once installation has completed, install Orca.msi (Located in %Program Files%\Microsoft Platform SDK\Bin)

Unpack adminpak.exe
 
Select adminpak.msi, Right-click and choose Edit with Orca

In the ‘Tables’ view (left pane) select ‘LaunchCondition’

Select in the right pane:   ‘Condition’ = (MsiNTSuitePersonal <> 1) AND ((VersionNT = 501 AND  (ServicePackLevel >= 1 OR QFE_DSPROP = "Yes")) OR (VersionNT = 502 AND ServicePackLevel <= AdminpakServicePackLevel ) )

Select ‘Transform’ à ‘New Transform’

Edit:   ‘Condition’ = (MsiNTSuitePersonal <> 1) AND ((VersionNT = 501 AND  (ServicePackLevel >= 1 OR QFE_DSPROP = "Yes")) OR (VersionNT = 502 AND ServicePackLevel <= AdminpakServicePackLevel ) ) to ‘Condition’ = (MsiNTSuitePersonal <> 1) AND ((VersionNT = 501 AND  (ServicePackLevel >= 1 OR QFE_DSPROP = "Yes")) OR (VersionNT = 600 AND ServicePackLevel <= AdminpakServicePackLevel ) )

Select ‘File’ à ‘Save Transformed As…’ and save to AdminPak_Vista.msi

Close Orca

Install AdminPak_Vista.msi on computer running Windows Vista

Easy! hope this helps.