July 2007 - Posts

• Extracting Files from MSI Installers

  Sometimes you need to extract one file from an MSI file. A typical example is when you need just one DLL in order to make a project compile, but in order to get it you need to download and install a complete application. The ideal solution is to get the DLL file from the MSI file without having to perform the installation. Some installers allow you extract the files to create a network installation. This is normally done using the command msiexec /a . Not all of them extract all the files, though. Well, there is a small utility hilariously called Less MSIérables that allows you to extract files from msi installers. It works great – it has been around for a while, and I’ve used it several times to get me out of tough spots. I definitely recommend that you check it out!! Posted Jul 07 2007, 12:32 AM by Jaguilar with no comments Filed under: Tools

• Error when installing SQL Server Express 2005

  Recently I kept getting this error when trying to install SQL Server 2005 Express Edition: An installation package for the product Microsoft SQL Server Native Client cannot be found. Try the installation again using a valid copy of the installation package 'sqlncli.msi' After re-downloading the installation package and running the setup several times, I found this page. There I found a solution: go to Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs, and UNINSTALL the Microsoft SQL Server Native Client. Run the installation again, and this time it should work correctly. Posted Jul 04 2007, 10:06 PM by Jaguilar with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Tools

• Featured on IT Now Magazine!

  I was featured on the June issue of IT Now, on an article they wrote about blogs. For this article I talked about how some attendees to one of the virtualization seminars in Zaragoza, Spain, recognized us from a solution he found here on our blogs. Since the magazine is in spanish, this is a rough translation: Jose Aguilar, one of the most recognized company bloggers, comments: "I think that the most important thing is the communication channel that you open with the readers. Another importat thing is the name that you create for yourself, your reputation. Recently, on an international seminar, one of the attendees recognized us from a problem he was having, and he found the solution on one of our blog posts.” Click on the image below to get a high-resolution scan of the article: IT Now is a magazine about business and teconology for the Central American market. You can check out their website here. Posted Jul 04 2007, 06:37 PM by Jaguilar with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Random