Adding MMC without the Overhead of IE
One of the posters to the newsgroup recently posted a solution to an issue that many customers have queried in the past, namely that of adding the Microsoft Management Console component to a configuration without having to take the footprint hit of bringing in the whole of Internet Explorer as well.
JHZ's solution identifies that only the following registry key, owned by the IE component, is required for MMC to function correctly:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer, "Version"="6.0.2900.2180"
The workaround here is to resolve all your dependencies in your image. Then add MMC and turn off Auto-resolve dependencies (uncheck the check box under Tools > Options > Dependency Check). Add the registry key listed above to your configuration - you can do this by creating a key under Target Designer > Settings > Extra Registry Data, or you can create your own custom component that contains this registry resource and import it into your db, then add to your configuration.
Build your image now (without running check dependencies again), and ignore the prompt that you have unresolved dependencies.
MMC will start up without complaining that IE is not present.
Thanks, JHZ for this workaround! A supported fix for this issue is definitely being considered for the next version, but at least customers can use this solution to unblock themselves in the meantime.