SUMMARY
With Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML), formerly known as the Microsoft XML Parser, customers can build XML-based applications that follow the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XML standards. This step-by-step article explains how to upgrade the older versions of the parser to the latest MSXML with relevant guidelines.
For additional information about the versions of MSXML parser and the products that they are distributed with, click the article number below
to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
269238 INFO: Version List of the Microsoft XML Parser
MSXML follows the
m.n versioning convention, where
m and
n indicate the major and minor versions, respectively. For example, MSXML 4.0 indicates the 4.0 release of the parser.
NOTE: MSXML is a COM-based parser and is used in the conventional Microsoft Windows DNA applications. The Microsoft .NET Framework provides a managed parser that is implemented under the
System.Xml namespace. Microsoft recommends that you use the managed parser to build XML-based applications because they come with all the advantages that .NET provides.
For additional information about using XML with .NET, click the article number below
to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
313651 INFO: Roadmap for XML in the .NET Framework
Upgrading to MSXML 4.0
MSXML 4.0 provides such advantages as a faster XML parser, enhanced XSLT engine, and extensive support for the W3C XML Schema (XSD) recommendation compared to the previous versions of the parser. MSXML 4.0 and later installs only in side-by-side mode and will not affect the installation of the previous versions of the parser such as MSXML 2.6 and MSXML 3.0. The replace mode functionality has been removed from MSXML 4.0 and later. Also, the MSXML parser versions are stand-alone and independent of each other; for example, installation of MSXML 4.0 does not require the previous versions of the parser to be present on the system.
Extra steps are required for the installation if you have one of the preview (beta) releases of MSXML 4.0 installed on the system. For more information, see the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site:
back to the top
Installation
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 2 or later is required for MSXML 4.0 to be fully functional. To download the latest version of Internet Explorer, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
- MSXML 4.0 uses Windows Installer 2.0 or later for the installation. You may have to restart your computer after you install Windows Installer 2.0 or later. To download Windows Installer, visit one of the following Microsoft Web sites:NOTE: Windows XP users can skip this step.
- Visit the following Microsoft Web site to download the latest service pack version of the MSXML 4.0 installation package:
The service pack versions completely supersede the RTM version and include bug fixes. There are three options to download and install MSXML 4.0. Use one of these options based on your requirements:
- Use Msxml.msi to install MSXML on your computer. You can also save it on your local disk to install later. After the download completes, click the file name, and then click Run to install MSXML. This installer package provides the Complete option and the Custom option. The Complete option installs both the component and SDK, and the Custom option permits you to either omit or include SDK installation.
- Use Msxmlmsm.exe (which contains Msxml4.msm) to get the merge module for the component and Msxmlsdk.exe (which contains Xmlsdkdoc.msm) for the SDK. These merge modules then can be included in your application setup. Click these file names to extract the corresponding .msm files to a folder. These files then can be used to merge with the .msi installation package for your application.
- Use Msxmlcab.exe (which contains Msxml4.cab) to get the cab file that redistributes MSXML over the Internet (note that no SDK exists for this option). The steps are similar to the installation of Msxml3.cab. For more information, visit the following MSDN Web site:
For example, the following HTML page can be used to install MSXML 4.0 Service Pack 1:
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>MSXML 4.0 SP1 Download Sample</title>
</head>
<body>
<object id="MSXML4"
classid="clsid:88d969c0-f192-11d4-a65f-0040963251e5"
codebase="msxml4.cab#version=4,10,9404,0"
type="application/x-oleobject"
STYLE="display: none">
</object>
This page downloads MSXML 4.0 SP1...
</body>
</html>
back to the top
Core DLLs for MSXML 4.0
On Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP:
Msxml4.dll
Msxml4r.dll
Winhttp5.dll
Msxml4.dll
Msxml4a.dll
NOTE: Winhttp5.dll is not used because it does not support Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Millennium Edition (Me) systems.
Command-Line Option for Quiet Installation
back to the top
Log File Generation
Windows Installer provides a logging service to troubleshoot issues that may occur during the installation of software packages. This feature can be used to help troubleshoot MSXML 4.0 installations.
For additional information, click the article number below
to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
314852 How to Enable Windows Installer Logging in Windows XP
Using MSXML 4.0
Because MSXML 4.0 installs only in side-by-side mode, it requires the use of version-dependent ProgIDs in your application. For example, using the
Msxml2.DOMDocument ProgID does not invoke a MSXML 4.0
DOMDocument, but
Msxml2.DOMDocument.4.0 does.
For additional information, click the article number below
to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
305019 INFO: MSXML 4.0 Specific GUIDs and ProgIDs