Software Installation Technologies

May 09th

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The Headline

AdminStudio 8.01 was released to address several issues in AdminStudio 8.0 related to integrating with Workflow Manager. Fixes include:

On the AdminStudio Projects tab, you can now hide completed projects
Users without administrative privileges are now able to upload files to an Application Request
When creating a new Application Catalog, users are no longer prompted to upgrade the schema

News Bulletin

InstallAware 7: The convenience of obviousness

San Francisco, CA, July 16, 2007 – InstallAware Software Corporation has released InstallAware 7, a setup authoring tool for ISVs and enterprises deploying products, patches, and web updates. InstallAware 7 creates Windows Installer setup packages with support for the latest technologies, including Microsoft .NET 3.0, Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, and 64 bit operating systems.

Articles - Windows Installer

Wise Package Studio Overview

Published: August 31, 2006
Category: Windows Installer Authoring Tools
Author: Joann Keosaian
Source: Altiris | juice.altiris.com

Summary
At Juice (Altiris Community), Joann Keosaian overviews Wise Package Studio®, a software management solution that supports the needs of application integration teams. Wise Package Studio provides a complete set of tools to support every phase of the application integration lifecycle, including repackaging, package quality assurance, and release management.

Authoring Tools

WarSetup - based on WiX

[Freeware] This authoring tool can create Windows Installer Packages.
[Description from the Website]

War Setup is an application to make .msi software installation packages. It uses the free WiX toolset from Microsoft to build the .msi files. The target audience for this application is Software Developers. It is also well suited to handle most install requirements for commecial software, at least for companies who want their install packages to be predictible, robust, easy to make and mantain, inituitive for the end-user, and comformant with the Microsoft Installer guidelines.

MSI Fundamentals

Windows Installer Table List

Windows Installer contains tables that can carry the properties of the .msi package.

ActionText: contains text to be displayed in a progress dialog box, and written to the log for actions that take a long time to execute. The displayed text consists of the action description and optionally formatted data from the action. Learn more
AdminExecuteSequence: lists actions that the installer calls in sequence when the top-level ADMIN action is executed. Learn more

Admin Tools

MyUninstaller: Alternative to AppWiz.cpl

Source: www.nirsoft.net

MyUninstaller is an alternative utility to the standard Add/Remove applet of Windows operating system. It displays the list of all installed application, and allows you to uninstall an application, delete an uninstall entry, and save the list of all installed applications into a text file or HTML file. It also provides additional information for most installed applications that the standard Add/Remove applet doesn't display: product name, company, version, uninstall string, installation folder and more.

[Start >> Run >> appwiz.cpl command takes you to Add/Remove Programs]

Developer Tools

MSI Readiness Analyzer for Windows Vista

Source: www.scriptlogic.com

MSI Readiness Analyzer for Windows Vista is a free standalone utility for IT professionals which analyzes MSI application installers and highlights methods to prepare them for Windows Vista. MSI Readiness Analyzer shows where application installers can take advantage of new technology in Vista, and also where problems might occur.

Analyze: Check for potential compatibility issues in Vista to address before deployment.

Knowledge Base

Application Packaging Best Practices for XP using Wise Package Studio®

Author: Scott Hardie
Source: Altiris | juice.altiris.com

At Juice (Altiris Community), Scott Hardie overviews Application Packaging Best Practices for XP using Wise Package Studio®. The six series tutorial covers basics about Application Packaging, focuses on Common Operating Environment (local, citrix, server), stages details for Application Packaging WorkFlow, discusses standard windows installer properties, exclusion list while capturing a package, application upgrade analysis and so on. If you are keen to learn application packaging using Wise Package Studio or require additional information about WPS as integrated with Windows Installer Technology, you will find this article series undoubtedly exciting and helpful.

Tips & Tricks

Macrovision's DevLetter & AdminLetter: April 2007

April 2007 issues of AdminLetter & DevLetter, newsletters from Macrovision are now published. Both try to uncover tips & tricks, knowledge base resources etc for authoring Windows Installer Packages for upcoming Windows Vista Operating System. Macrovision also released InstallShield 2008.