One file per component or several files per component?

This is a great answer but doesn't say why the reverse is useful. Which is reasonable, as I only know of one advantage: you save some registration time during installation, as each component is registered, but each of its files is not. This is generally not a good tradeoff, as it kills resiliency and hinders upgrades, so pay more attention to wcoenen's recommendation. – Spaniel 22/10, 2009 at 15:2

@Wim Coenen When using a "file per component" approach, one should put KeyPath="yes" on File, but what about its component? Is it necessary to add the same KeyPath="yes" on File's parent Component? Furthermore, what about Directory? What is the best practice with directories (empty and non empty)? Is there a good guidance on this? Thanks!!! – Gastrolith 27/4, 2012 at 21:38

@zam6ak: comments are not the best place to ask new questions, as they get only limited attention and can't accommodate thorough answers. Please post a separate question instead of a comment! – Blalock 27/4, 2012 at 21:51

@Wim Coenen Point taken! Here is the question: https://mcmap.net/q/104224/-wix-using-keypath-on-components-directories-files-registry-etc-etc/481904 – Gastrolith 27/4, 2012 at 23:3

@WimCoenen You said "When an application is started, Windows Installer can check whether the keypath of any component is missing." But, it's not always true. According to this site, "There are only certain entry points that trigger auto repair, such as advertised shortcuts, COM activation etc." – Bomarc 17/7, 2013 at 3:38

@WimCoenen You said "If the keypath is a file and the file is already there (with the same version or higher) then the component is not installed." It may be helpful then to discuss non-versioned files (aspx, txt, etc) as it may be a reason to violate the one file per component guideline. – Fulani 28/2, 2014 at 18:18

I do not understand why Wix doesn't support it implicitly :((( Why should I write all this boilerplate with including every single file into a separate component. – Tubulure 10/2, 2015 at 8:0

Note that there are a few cases where several files always belong together and should be installed / uninstalled as a single unit. Multi-file .NET assemblies is just one such case. In these cases you should put all these files in the same MSI component to ensure they are handled together and not independently. Carefully set the appropriate key file for the group of files - the file that indicates whether all files should be updated / installed / uninstalled (preferably a versioned binary). – Gotham 14/8, 2017 at 19:2

@SteinÅsmul Wrong. Wim's argument is just as important for this case - the only file that's being checked is the one that's "keypath". If you have several files that always belong together, they should be part of the same feature (and/or component group), but not the same component - otherwise you have no guarantee that they're all going to be installed (or repaired). Many of the failures of installers to repair installations boil down exactly to this - many different interdependent files in the same component. If the file that gets corrupted isn't the "keypath", tough luck. – Sempstress 28/8, 2018 at 12:43

The deal is that some files belong together in "pairs", and shouldn't get "out of sync" - as in you shouldn't update just one of them. It happens, but it isn't that common a scenario. – Gotham 28/8, 2018 at 12:51

@SergeyKostrukov: 9 years later, your feature request has been implemented with WiX 5 and its "naked files" feature: wixtoolset.org/docs/fivefour/#naked-files – Helbonnah 11/4 at 14:40

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