Introduction

DILM Suite Manager is the central lifecycle manager for the DILM Suite. It is the one place to see every DILM Suite product, which of them are installed on this machine, which have updates waiting, what your subscription covers — and to install, update, launch, or remove any of them.

The Problem DILM Suite Manager Solves

The DILM Suite is a family of products — SSIS Catalog Browser, SSIS Catalog Compare, SSIS Framework Manager, DILM Deployment Utility, Lifecycle Management Enterprise Tiers, SSIS Explorer, and others. Each ships as its own MSI, each has its own version number, and the subscription products each have their own subscription.

DIL Suite Manager is included in the downloads of all DILM Suite consumer products. Product updates are supported by application-level notification and update modules – which execute each time you start an application – so you’re not stuck if DILM Suite Manager is not installed. DILM Suite Manager is simply an option for viewing and maintaining the current status of your DILM Suite install base.

DILM Suite Manager collapses that into one window: it reads what Windows Installer says is installed, fetches the current released version of every product from the DILM Suite catalog, checks your subscriptions, and shows you a card per product with the right buttons already on it.

What It Does

• Discovers installed products by querying the Windows Installer database directly, so what you see is what Windows believes is installed — not a guess from a registry key or a folder scan.
• Loads the product catalog from the DILM Suite service: the current released version of each product, its download, its release notes, its product page.
• Checks subscriptions per product against your DILM Suite store account, and caches the answer locally so the window still tells you something useful when you are offline.
• Installs and updates by downloading the product MSI, verifying it against a published SHA-256 hash, and handing it to Windows Installer.
• Uninstalls through Windows Installer, and confirms the removal actually completed.
• Launches any installed product.

What It Does Not Do

• It does not replace Windows’ Apps & features. Products installed through DILM Suite Manager are ordinary MSI installations and can be removed through Windows if you prefer.
• It does not manage licensing inside each product. Each product enforces its own subscription at its own startup; DILM Suite Manager reports subscription state, it does not grant it.
• It does not install anything silently or in the background. Every install, update, and removal is something you clicked, and Windows Installer’s own elevation prompt still applies.

Who It Is For

Anyone who runs more than one DILM Suite product — and anyone who runs exactly one, but would rather be told when there is an update than have to check.

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Key Concepts

Product

A product is one DILM Suite application — SSIS Catalog Compare, SSIS Framework Manager, DILM Deployment Utility, and so on. Each product has its own MSI, its own version sequence, and its own product page on dilmsuite.com.

Products come in two commercial types:

• Subscription products require an active DILM Suite subscription to run. DILM Suite Manager shows their subscription state and offers purchase and renewal links.
• Free products require no subscription. They show as Free and can be installed by anyone.

Catalog

The catalog is the authoritative list of DILM Suite products and their current released versions, published by the DILM Suite service. DILM Suite Manager fetches it at startup and on every refresh. The catalog supplies, per product: display name, current version, download URL and its SHA-256 hash, release notes, product page URL, icon, and whether the product is subscription or free.

If the catalog cannot be reached, DILM Suite Manager says so rather than showing a stale or empty list — see Troubleshooting.

Installed Product

An installed product is what Windows Installer reports as present on this machine. DILM Suite Manager enumerates the Windows Installer product database and keeps the DILM Suite entries, reading each one’s product name, installed version, and product code.

This matters for accuracy: a product folder left behind after a failed uninstall is not an installed product, and DILM Suite Manager will not claim it is.

Matching

DILM Suite Manager matches catalog products to installed products by MSI product name, case-insensitively. The match is what produces a card’s state:

Subscription state is then overlaid on top of that result.

Product Status

Every card carries exactly one status, shown as text and as a colored bar across the top of the card:

Subscription status only replaces install-based status for products that are not installed. Once a product is on the machine, the card keeps telling you whether it is current — its subscription state shows in the links and messages instead. This is deliberate: an expired subscription does not uninstall your software, and the card should not imply it did.

Subscription

A subscription is a purchase in the DILM Suite store, identified by an order number and the email address on the order. DILM Suite Manager looks up subscriptions per product using that pair.

Two levels exist:

• Application subscription — the credentials DILM Suite applications use, entered through View ▸ Subscription.
• Per-product subscription — the order number and email for an individual product, entered from that product’s card. Products bought at different times, or on different orders, each carry their own.

Results are cached locally so the window remains informative offline. See Subscriptions.

Product Code

Every MSI installation has a product code, a GUID Windows Installer uses to identify it. DILM Suite Manager uses the product code to uninstall, which is why the Uninstall button appears only for products whose code it could read. A product installed by some other means, or whose installation record is damaged, may show as installed but not offer removal.

Elevation

Installing, updating, and uninstalling MSIs are machine-wide operations. Windows requires administrative elevation for them, so each one raises the standard User Account Control prompt. DILM Suite Manager itself runs without elevation.

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Prerequisites and Installation

System Requirements

DILM Suite Manager itself runs as a standard user. Administrative rights are needed at the moment you install, update, or uninstall a product, and Windows prompts for them then.

Network Access

DILM Suite Manager reaches out for three things. All are HTTPS on port 443:

If your network requires a proxy, configure it in Windows — DILM Suite Manager uses the system proxy settings. On a locked-down network, ask your network administrator to allow dilmsuite.com and its subdomains.

Without network access, DILM Suite Manager still opens and still discovers what is installed, but the catalog area reports that the catalog is unavailable and no versions or downloads are offered.

Installing

1. Download DILMInstallationManagerSetup.msi from dilmsuite.com.
2. Run the MSI. Windows SmartScreen may warn about an unrecognized publisher; choose More info ▸ Run anyway if you trust the download source.
3. Accept the license agreement and complete the wizard. The installer requires elevation.

The application installs per-machine to:

C:\Program Files\DILMSuite\DILMInstallationManager\

and adds a DILM Suite Manager shortcut under Start ▸ DILMSuite.

First Launch

1. Launch DILM Suite Manager.
2. The status bar reports progress: discovering installed products, then loading the catalog.
3. Product cards appear, one per catalog product, each showing its installed version, its latest version, and its status.

If the product area shows No subscription configured with a Configure Subscription… link, follow it and enter your order number and email — see Subscriptions.

Where DILM Suite Manager Keeps Its Data

The log is a CSV file, appended to across sessions. The subscription cache holds, per product, the order number, order email, subscription status, expiration date, and when it was last checked — no payment details and no passwords.

Both files are per-user. Another Windows account on the same machine keeps its own.

Uninstalling DILM Suite Manager

Uninstall through Settings ▸ Apps ▸ Installed apps. Removing DILM Suite Manager does not remove the DILM Suite products it installed — those are independent MSI installations and stay where they are.

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The Main Window

The window titled DILM Suite Manager is a menu bar, a scrolling wall of product cards, and a status bar.

Layout

The window remembers its size and position between sessions. Resizing it reflows the cards — a wider window fits more cards per row.

The View Menu

Refresh

Re-runs the whole startup sequence: rediscovers installed products, reloads the catalog, rechecks subscriptions, and rebuilds the cards.

Use Refresh after:

• Installing or removing a product outside DILM Suite Manager.
• Renewing or purchasing a subscription on the website.
• Reconnecting to the network after working offline.
• A new release you know has shipped but do not yet see.

If a refresh fails, the status bar shows the error and a dialog explains it. The cards from the previous successful load stay on screen.

Subscription

Opens the Subscription dialog for DILM Suite Manager’s own subscription. See Subscriptions.

The Product Area

Each catalog product renders as a card. Cards are independent — each runs its own install, update, or uninstall, tracks its own progress, and can expand its own release notes without disturbing the others. You can start work on one card and keep reading another.

Instead of cards, the product area shows a message when it has nothing to display:

The Status Bar

The status bar carries four pieces of information:

• Progress and results on the left — Discovering installed products..., Found 4 installed DILM product(s). Loading catalog..., and the outcome of the last action.
• License status — the state of DILM Suite Manager’s own subscription. This label is clickable and opens the Subscription dialog, exactly like View ▸ Subscription.
• Subscriber — the name on the order, when a subscription has been found.
• Expiration date, color-coded by urgency:

The application version is shown at the right end of the status bar.

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Reading a Product Card

Every product in the catalog gets one card. The card tells you what the product is, what you have, what is available, and what you can do about it.

Anatomy of a Card

The card’s background is tinted to match its status, so a wall of cards reads at a glance: green is fine, orange wants attention, red is a problem, gray is not installed, blue is free.

Status Colors

Release Notes

Click ▶ View release notes to expand the notes published in the catalog for the latest version; the link becomes ▼ Hide release notes. The card grows to fit and the surrounding cards reflow. Where no notes were published, the link is hidden.

Read the notes before taking an update — they are where breaking changes and new prerequisites are announced.

Which Buttons Appear

Buttons are not disabled; they are simply absent when they do not apply.

While a card is downloading, installing, or uninstalling, its buttons are hidden and a progress message takes their place. Other cards are unaffected.

DILM Suite Manager never offers to launch itself — a Launch button on its own card would just open a second copy of the window you are already looking at.

Links

The subscription links appear only on subscription products. Free products never show them.

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Installing and Updating Products

Installing and updating follow the same path: download, verify, hand to Windows Installer, confirm.

Installing a Product

1. Find the product’s card. Its status reads Not installed (or Free, for a free product you have not installed).
2. Click Install.
3. The card expands to show a progress bar while the MSI downloads.
4. When the download finishes, the card reports Download complete. Launching installer...
5. Windows raises its User Account Control prompt. Approve it — installation is a machine-wide change and cannot proceed without elevation.
6. The product’s own installer wizard appears. Work through it.
7. The card reports Installing... (please wait) and watches for the product to appear in the Windows Installer database.
8. When installation completes, the card refreshes: Installed: shows the new version, the status turns green, and Launch and Uninstall appear.

Updating a Product

Identical, except you click Update on a card whose status is Update available.

Updates are MSI upgrades: Windows Installer replaces the older installation in place. Your settings, which live in your user profile rather than in the program folder, survive the upgrade.

Close the product first. Windows Installer may not be able to replace files that are in use, and will either prompt you to close the application or schedule a reboot. Closing the product before you click Update avoids both.

Download Integrity

Every download is checked against the SHA-256 hash published in the catalog before it is run. If the hash does not match, DILM Suite Manager reports Download integrity check failed and does not launch the installer.

A hash mismatch usually means a truncated or corrupted download — try again. If it recurs, something is modifying the download in transit; report it before working around it.

What You Will See

If Installation Does Not Complete in Time

The card watches for up to five minutes, checking every three seconds. A long-running installer, or one waiting on a dialog behind another window, can exceed that.

The message means only that the card stopped watching — it does not mean the installation failed. Look for the installer’s own window, finish it, and then choose View ▸ Refresh to bring the card back in step with reality.

If You Cancel the Elevation Prompt

Declining the User Account Control prompt cancels the installation. Nothing is installed and the card returns to its previous state. Click Install or Update again when you are ready to approve it.

Launching a Product

Click Launch on any installed product’s card. DILM Suite Manager starts the product’s executable, and the two run independently — you can close DILM Suite Manager without affecting the product you launched.

Launch is offered regardless of subscription state. An expired subscription does not remove the software from your machine, so the button is still there; the product enforces its own licensing when it starts.

Installing Several Products

Cards work independently, so you can start one product’s download while another installs. Windows Installer, however, serializes installations machine-wide: if two installers try to run at once, the second waits for the first, or reports that another installation is in progress. Taking them one at a time is the smoother experience.

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Uninstalling Products

Removing a Product

1. Find the product’s card. Uninstall appears on installed products whose product code DILM Suite Manager could read.
2. Close the product if it is running.
3. Click Uninstall.
4. Windows raises its User Account Control prompt. Approve it.
5. The card reports Uninstalling... and watches for the product to disappear from the Windows Installer database, checking every three seconds for up to five minutes.
6. When removal completes, the card refreshes: Installed: reads Not Installed, the status returns to Not installed or Purchase required, and Install takes the place of Launch and Uninstall.

Removal is performed by Windows Installer against the product’s product code, requesting full removal. It is the same operation Apps & features performs.

What Uninstalling Leaves Behind

Uninstalling removes the program files. It does not remove:

• Your settings, which live in your user profile.
• Log files written by the product.
• Data the product created — scripts you generated, files you exported, databases you built.

That is intentional: reinstalling the product later finds your settings where it left them. To remove them, delete the product’s folder under %LOCALAPPDATA% after uninstalling.

Uninstalling also does not touch anything on your SQL Server instances. Framework databases, catalog contents, and generated objects are unaffected.

If Uninstallation Does Not Complete in Time

As with installation, the card stops watching after five minutes and says so. The message reports that the card gave up watching, not that removal failed. Look for an installer window waiting for input, let it finish, then choose View ▸ Refresh.

When Uninstall Is Not Offered

Uninstall is hidden when DILM Suite Manager has no product code for the installation. That happens when the product was installed by some means Windows Installer did not record, or when the installation record is damaged.

In that case, remove the product through Settings ▸ Apps ▸ Installed apps instead, then refresh.

Subscriptions and Uninstalling

Uninstalling a product does not cancel its subscription, and cancelling a subscription does not uninstall the product. They are separate: subscriptions are managed in the DILM Suite store, software is managed here. To stop being billed, cancel the subscription on the website — see Subscriptions.

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Subscriptions

Subscription products in the DILM Suite are licensed by a purchase in the DILM Suite store. DILM Suite Manager identifies a subscription by two values from your order confirmation email:

• Order number — the numeric order identifier.
• Email — the email address the order was placed with.

Together they let DILM Suite Manager look up the subscription and report its status. Neither value is a password, and DILM Suite Manager never asks for one.

Application Subscription vs. Per-Product Subscription

Products bought on different orders each need their own order number and email. If everything was bought on one order, use the same pair everywhere.

The Subscription Dialog

The Subscription Lookup dialog is the same across the DILM Suite, so it behaves identically here and inside each product.

1. Enter the Order Number.
2. Enter the Email used on the order.
3. Click Load.

The dialog retrieves the subscription and fills in its detail sections:

• Basic Info — product name, subscription ID, subscription status, registration status, currency.
• Dates — created, modified, start, end, trial end, last order, and the schedule dates including the next payment date.
• Billing — whether manual renewal is required, and the suspension count.

Click OK to save the order number and email, or Close to leave without saving. On OK, DILM Suite Manager stores the values, refreshes the subscription, and reloads the product cards.

If the lookup finds nothing, check the order number and email against your confirmation email — the email must match the one on the order exactly.

Subscription Status on a Card

The renewal and purchase links open dilmsuite.com in your browser. Renewals and cancellations are handled on the website — DILM Suite Manager reads subscription state, it does not change it.

After renewing, come back and choose View ▸ Refresh to pick up the new status.

Expiration Warnings in the Status Bar

DILM Suite Manager’s own subscription expiration date is color-coded in the status bar as it approaches: goldenrod inside three weeks, orange inside a week, bold orange inside three days, bold red once expired. See The Main Window.

Working Offline

Subscription results are cached locally at %LOCALAPPDATA%\DILMSuite\subscriptions.json, holding per product the order number, order email, status, expiration date, and when it was last checked.

When the store cannot be reached, DILM Suite Manager falls back to that cache and shows the last known status. The information may be stale — a subscription renewed or cancelled while you were offline will not be reflected until the next successful check. Choose View ▸ Refresh once you are back online.

Expired Subscriptions and Installed Software

An expired subscription does not remove software from your machine, and DILM Suite Manager does not treat it as if it did:

• The card still reports whether the installed version is current.
• Launch still appears.
• Uninstall still appears.

Each product enforces its own licensing when it starts. What an expired subscription costs you is access to new versions and to the product’s licensed functionality — not the files on disk.

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Troubleshooting

DILM Suite Manager writes a diagnostic log to:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\DILMSuite\DILMInstallationManager.log

It is a CSV file, appended to across sessions, and it is the first place to look for the detail behind any message below. It never blocks the application — if the log cannot be written, the application carries on.

Catalog and Startup

The product area shows a red message about the catalog

DILM Suite Manager could not load the product catalog. Installed products were still discovered, but no versions, downloads, or release notes are available.

• Check your internet connection.
• Confirm HTTPS access to dilmsuite.com and its subdomains — a corporate proxy or filter is the usual cause.
• Confirm the system proxy is configured in Windows; DILM Suite Manager uses it.
• Choose View ▸ Refresh to retry.

“API credentials file not found”

The credentials file shipped with DILM Suite Manager is missing from the install folder. This is a damaged installation — repair or reinstall from the MSI.

“No subscription configured”

No order number and email have been entered. Click Configure Subscription…, or choose View ▸ Subscription, and enter the values from your order confirmation email. See Subscriptions.

“No products available”

The catalog loaded but returned nothing. Refresh. If it persists, the service is returning an empty catalog — report it.

Product Discovery

A product I installed does not show as installed

• Choose View ▸ Refresh. Discovery runs at startup and on refresh, not continuously.
• Confirm the product appears in Settings ▸ Apps ▸ Installed apps. DILM Suite Manager reports what Windows Installer reports; if Windows does not list it, neither will DILM Suite Manager.
• DILM Suite Manager recognizes DILM Suite products by their MSI product name. A product installed from a renamed or repackaged MSI may not be recognized.

A product shows as installed but I removed it

A failed or partial uninstall can leave the Windows Installer record in place. Confirm in Settings ▸ Apps ▸ Installed apps and remove it there, then refresh.

The installed version looks wrong

The version shown is the one Windows Installer recorded at install time, which is the MSI’s product version. It can differ in its last component from the executable’s file version — that is normal and not an error.

Downloads and Installation

“Download integrity check failed”

The downloaded file did not match the SHA-256 hash published in the catalog. Almost always a truncated or corrupted download — click Install or Update again.

If it recurs, something between you and the download is altering the file. Do not work around it; report it.

The download fails or stalls

• Check the connection and any proxy.
• Confirm the download host is not blocked.
• Confirm there is free disk space in your temporary folder.
• Retry. Failed downloads leave nothing installed.

Nothing happened after I clicked Install

If you declined the User Account Control prompt, the installation was cancelled. Click Install again and approve the prompt.

“Installation did not complete within the expected time.”

The card watched for five minutes and stopped. This is not a failure report — it means the card stopped watching.

• Look for the product’s installer window, possibly behind other windows or waiting for input.
• Finish it, then choose View ▸ Refresh.

“Another installation is already in progress”

Windows Installer allows one installation at a time machine-wide. Wait for the other one — including Windows Update — to finish and try again.

The installer says files are in use

Close the product being updated and retry. If Windows Installer offers to close applications for you, letting it do so is usually cleaner than accepting a reboot.

Uninstalling

There is no Uninstall button

DILM Suite Manager has no product code for that installation, so it cannot request removal. Remove the product through Settings ▸ Apps ▸ Installed apps, then refresh.

Uninstall reported it did not complete in time

Same as installation: the card stopped watching after five minutes. Check for a waiting installer window, then refresh.

Subscriptions

The lookup finds no subscription

• Confirm the order number and email against your order confirmation email. The email must match the order exactly.
• Confirm the subscription is for the product whose card you are working on — per-product subscriptions are looked up per product.
• If the store is unreachable, the cached status is shown instead; refresh once you are back online.

The status is stale after renewing

Renewals are processed on the website. Choose View ▸ Refresh to re-check. If the store has not finished processing the renewal, wait a few minutes and refresh again.

Application Startup

DILM Suite Manager does not start

• Confirm .NET Framework 4.8 is installed.
• Launch from a PowerShell prompt to capture the error:

  & 'C:\Program Files\DILMSuite\DILMInstallationManager\DILMInstallationManager.exe' 2>&1
  

• Check %LOCALAPPDATA%\DILMSuite\DILMInstallationManager.log for the last entries.
• Repair or reinstall from the MSI.

Getting Help

Include:

• DILM Suite Manager version from the right end of the status bar.
• Your Windows version.
• The relevant lines from %LOCALAPPDATA%\DILMSuite\DILMInstallationManager.log.
• The exact text of any error dialog, and which product’s card it came from.

Visit DILM Suite Bug Report to report a bug.

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Glossary

Catalog — The authoritative list of DILM Suite products and their current released versions, published by the DILM Suite service and fetched by DILM Suite Manager at startup and on refresh. Not to be confused with the SSIS Catalog, which is a SQL Server database and the subject of several other DILM Suite products.

Card — See product card.

DILM Suite — Data Integration Lifecycle Management Suite: the family of products DILM Suite Manager manages.

Elevation — Administrative privilege, requested by Windows through the User Account Control prompt. Required to install, update, or uninstall an MSI. DILM Suite Manager itself runs unelevated.

Free product — A product requiring no subscription. Shown with the Free status.

Installed product — A product Windows Installer reports as present on this machine. DILM Suite Manager reads the installed set from the Windows Installer database rather than inferring it from files or registry keys.

Latest version — The current released version of a product according to the catalog. Shown on each card as Latest:.

MSI — A Windows Installer package. Every DILM Suite product ships as one.

msiexec — The Windows Installer executable that performs installations and removals.

Order number — The numeric identifier of a purchase in the DILM Suite store. Paired with the order email to look up a subscription.

Per-product subscription — Subscription credentials entered for one specific product, from that product’s card. Necessary when products were bought on different orders.

Product card — The tile representing one catalog product in the main window, carrying its icon, versions, status, release notes, action buttons, and links.

Product code — The GUID Windows Installer uses to identify a specific installation. Required to uninstall; when it is unknown, the Uninstall button does not appear.

Product status — The single state assigned to a card: Not installed, Up to date, Update available, Subscription active, Subscription expiring soon, Subscription expired, Subscription on hold, Subscription cancelled, Purchase required, or Free. Encoded in the card’s status bar color and background tint.

Release notes — Per-version notes published in the catalog, collapsed behind a link on each card.

SHA-256 hash — The cryptographic checksum published in the catalog for each download, verified after download and before the installer is launched. A mismatch aborts the installation.

Subscription — A purchase in the DILM Suite store that licenses a subscription product, identified by order number and order email.

Subscription cache — The local file %LOCALAPPDATA%\DILMSuite\subscriptions.json holding the last known subscription status per product, used when the store cannot be reached.

Subscription product — A product requiring an active subscription to run, as opposed to a free product.

UAC — User Account Control, the Windows mechanism that prompts for administrative elevation.

Upgrade — An MSI installation that replaces an earlier version of the same product in place, preserving per-user settings. What Update performs.

Windows Installer — The Windows service that installs, upgrades, and removes MSI packages, and maintains the database of what is installed.

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