Visual Studio 2005 RTM installation has Merge modules from Beta2?

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Visual Studio 2005 installs merge modules during its installation in the 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules' folder. You can include these msm files in your installation to automatically include the runtime dlls for the CRT, MFC or ATL( and some other redists) packages.

If you have installed the RTM(8.0.50727.42) version of Visual Studio 2005, You will find that 'file description' of the merge modules will indicate that they were part of beta2. For ex, the 'Microsoft_VC80_CRT_x86.msm' has the Rightclick->Properties->summary->subject as 'Visual C++ 8.0 CRT (x86) WinSXS MSM Beta2' . ( the same is displayed as the tooltip when you place your mouse cursor over the file).

Don't be alarmed by this. The file is *NOT* from beta2. They belong to the RTM versions only. The 'beta2' description is due to a bug in the summary information. Things will work fine absolutely when you include these msm files and create an installable.

To know more about merge modules, manifests and redists for Visual studio 2005 go to https://blogs.msdn.com/nikolad