Clean up Windows bundle installers #44582
Description
The Shared Framework and Windows Hosting bundle installers have some issues we should address. Main issues are
Sizes and verbosity
- over-verbose full names e.g. "Build alpha.1.22514.10" isn't that useful in most cases but shows up repeatedly
- truncated strings, even in English
- this shows up primarily in the installer titles and relates to the Build information mentioned above
- the Welcome message in the Windows Hosting bundle is also less tall which doesn't leave room for "Server Hosting"
- some text in the Success page of the Windows Hosting bundle is taller than in the Shared Framework bundle but I'm not sure which is better
Making the thm.xml files more consistent and changing how we use $(BrandingVersionSuffix) will address the above issues.
Example installer pages:
This image is not resized; the Windows Hosting bundle really is much less wide.
Latest hot key updates are inconsistent and cause conflicts for some languages
Hot key updates from #43956 introduced new problems in some page / language combinations. For example, in Italian, the “Annulla” (Cancel) hot key is now “U” in a few places where it was previously “A” but at least one Cancel key remains “A” – causing a new inconsistency. And, in Turkish, the “Kaldır” (Uninstall) hot key is now “K” where it was previously “A” but “Kapat” (Close) on the same screen remans “K” – causing a new conflict.
Need to check the other hot key changes to confirm those changes are everything that needs a fix. Then, file loc issues to make the actual changes.
Confusing unused strings and pages in WiX sources
We have a number of strings that appear to be either completely unreferenced or unnecessary. For example, the Options pages in these installers are present in the thm.xml files and have corresponding strings in the thm.wxl files but the page is completely disabled through SuppressOptionsUI="yes" in our bal:WixStandardBootstrapperApplication elements. (These bundles install components in multiple hard-coded locations.)
Should remote the Options page from our thm.xml files, remove related strings and anything else we find is unused, then try an official build to confirm we didn't remove too much.
Late errors
- Shared Framework bundle installer does not fail immediately when using an incompatible installer e.g. ARM64 on an x64 machine
- fails after clicking Install; is it possible to move the checks earlier❔
Minor: Add more loc comments
Should comment at least to ensure "Web Developer Tools" is locked (if we need that resource) and [\[]directory[[/]] doesn't confuse future loc team members into locking "directory".