Installation Projects
MSI Package Builder is a project based program – this means that all data is grouped by the projects, that are displayed in the Projects view. The interesting feature of the projects structure is that you can close the project if it is not needed right now then reopen it again. This allows you to keep the Projects view in an actual state during the everyday work.
MSI Package Builder supports various project types depending on the program edition. All editions support regular projects, while the Enterprise and Architect editions also handle projects with wrapped packages, useful for repackaging installations via wrapping. You can identify the project type by its icon, displayed in the Projects tree, Projects Storage, and the Welcome view.
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A regular project includes file system, registry, and other changes to be applied to the system upon package deployment. |
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A project containing wrapped packages. These packages are installed and uninstalled when you install and uninstall the packages containing them. |
A regular project contains the information on file system, registry and other modifications – the deployment package based on the project will perform these modifications during the installation on the computer. The project stores all configuration options, required to create a deployment package between sessions. That makes it easier to manage updates. So, for example, if you have upgrade enabled in the project settings, all you need to create an updated package is to define the required modifications, change the version and provide another product GUID – everything else is already configured.
The MSI Package Builder Professional edition allows you to define file system, registry, and assembly changes for MSI packages. The Enterprise and Architect editions not only include these features but also offer advanced options. These additional options enable you to modify user and system environment variables, manage Windows services, configure printers, deploy drivers, create firewall settings, and handle scheduled tasks.
In this chapter we will take a closer look on the project structure, will show you how you can define the changes, specify actions to be performed during the package deployment, provide installations to be deployed together with the package and will guide you through the process of manual MSI package creation. This part is for those who want to fully understand the concept of MSI Package Builder and be able to use all available advanced features.
What's Inside
Environment Variables Modifications
Side-by-side Assemblies Deployment
Windows Firewall Modifications