Easier install options?

Hi

Is anyone familiar with AI and MSI files, thing is, in my current job we dont use them, dont know why buy hey

Does anyone know of any 3rd party software that eases the install of the same program over and over, i am only part of the desktop support team so all i do is install and fix.

Any ideas would be great

Lee H

Webmaster "Post did not show straight away, i thought it did not work so i put it on again"

sorry

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Comments

malcybood

Hi Lee,

There are various MSI builders out there but which one you choose really depends of the complexity of the packaging you require.

What do you need to do/install?

Malc

sprkymrk

For a few things I use Active Directory Group Policy. You have to be careful using this procedure though. Make sure you don't try to push out a Full Office 2003 install to 500 workstations at once.

I do use it to install the ghost.msi client, which is only about 8MB. As soon as a computer gets joined to the domain it gets installed, and since it is installed by a GPO, it is self repairing too. I never have to mess with it. Same with an anti-spyware program.

Webmaster

Lee H wrote:

Webmaster "Post did not show straight away, i thought it did not work so i put it on again"
sorry

No problem. I deleted the other topic, following is a reply to that one:

Sie wrote:

MSI Files and MSIEXEC application can be used to automate the installation of applications.

Three main parts of MSI are:

MSI file: basically a database or application settings/instructions

MST File: Contains custom settings/options (overrides settings in MSI file)

MSP File: Patch packages.

They can be run from the command line with the following command:

msiexec /I {path}\Package.msi

They can also be assigned as GPO's within AD.

(Just been re-reading through 70-270 and just passed that section so i hope i got nothing wrong!!)

Sie

I posted on the other one

Anyway assuming you know what they are: 3rd Party programs i have heard of to create MSI files are:

Advanced Installer
WinINSTALL
Wise

Though i havent used any of these personally as we have another team that deals with the packaging of applications , we would just deploy. (Via GPO and 3rd Party Deployment software (Unicenter - Computer Associates application) )

JDMurray

There are several application installation builder programs that can build MSI files. The two that immediately jump to mind are InstallShield and Wise. There are also a lot of programs that are capable of building good, robust application installations that are completely independent of the MSI.

MSI files can be very complex; I've sometimes experienced great difficulties when creating patch files (.msp files) for different revisions of the same program. When using MSI, it is possible to make such significant changes to an application that can't be redistributed as a patch. At that point, I wished that I had gone the with non-MSI installer.

I usually advise against using an MSI-based installer builder unless your application must be installed by the MSI.