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.
Each 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.
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