In a first for the industry behemoth, Microsoft has donated its Windows Installer XML (WiX) to SourceForge.net, the open source developer network.

WiX is a toolset that uses XML code to build Windows installation packages. The toolset supports a command line environment that developers may integrate into their build processes to build MSI and MSM setup packages. It includes a compiler, a lib tool, a linker and a decompiler.

According to a blog posting by Microsoft employee Rob Mensching, "The WiX toolset and all of its source code has been released so that you can build Windows Installer databases (MSI and MSM files) the same way most groups inside Microsoft do.

However, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. WiX became the first project from Microsoft to be released under an OSS approved license, namely the Common Public License."

Explaining the reason for the current release of WiX, Menshing said, "Back in 1999 and 2000, I did not feel that many people inside Microsoft understood what the Open Source community was really about and I wanted to improve that understanding by providing an example.…Via WiX on SourceForge, you get to see the results of many people's efforts to improve Microsoft from the inside out. I'm not exactly sure what is going to happen next but I'm sure there are quite a few people who are interested to see where this leads. Personally, all I hope is that if you find the WiX toolset useful then you'll join the community and help us improve the toolset."

More information about the toolset and its OSS release can be found at: