Alex,

I don't think the recommendation in MSDN is to create a *new* merge module. You can use the "official" self-extracting VS redistributable package (.exe) or the Microsoft_VC90_CRT_x86.msm (and others) merge module(s). to deploy the runtimes. The MSM is for MSI based installations, the .exe can be used for non-MSI installations.

If you have Managed Assemblies that are shared with other applications then SetupBuilder allows you to install into the Global Assembly Cache (the central repository of all shared assemblies).

Does this help?

Friedrich