WiX v6 KeyPath Behavior – Component vs File (UI Repair vs Silent Repair)

[vkpabba]

Question

Hi all,
I’m seeing a difference in repair behavior in WiX v6 compared to older WiX versions (v5), and I’d like to confirm whether this is expected MSI behavior or something that changed in WiX authoring/runtime.

✅ Scenario

Single MSI
Single Feature
Single Component
Component installs a single file into a directory

Case 1: Delete folder → Repair
✅ Folder and file are restored

Case 2: Delete only the file → Repair
UI Repair → ❌ File is NOT restored
Silent Repair -> ✅ File IS restored

Questions

1. Is this behavior expected ?

i.e., KeyPath="yes" on Component → directory becomes key path?

2. Did WiX v6 change or tighten this behavior compared to WiX v5?

In WiX v5, the same pattern seemed to restore the file even in UI repair

3. Is the correct fix to always move KeyPath="yes" to the File element instead?

Open Source Maintenance Fee

• I (or an organization I'm a member of) pay the Open Source Maintenance Fee by sponsoring the wixtoolset project because I support the maintainers.

[robmen]

I forget if there was a bug fix between v5 and v6. A verbose log file would probalby be useful to understand the different file repair behaviors. The details are all in there.