Repackaging via Wrapping

One of the installations repackaging methods used by MSI Package Builder is wrapping existing installations into a generated MSI package. Wrapping means that those installations are distributed as a part of the MSI package and are installed, uninstalled and repaired simultaneously in the specified order.

Repackaging via wrapping can be used to build MSI packages only. App-V packages require that package content be explicitly defined before building a package, thus it is not possible to launch installations while deploying a virtual application. As the MSIX/AppX packages use an isolated sandbox environment concept for deployed contents, it is also not possible to launch installations while deploying those packages.

The advantage of this mode is that the original installation is always executed on each PC, so there should be no chance that a generated MSI package will be installed incorrectly on specific target machines. The disadvantage of this mode is that you need to know the silent installation parameters and possibly provide installation scenario files to generate an MSI package that can be used for silent deployment.

To perform repackaging via wrapping, either choose the Wrap Installation option in the Repackage Installation wizard or click the Wrap Installation shortcut in the Product Actions group on the Welcome Screen. In any case, you'll be able to provide a set of installations to be wrapped and their deployment order Pic 1.

Repackaging via wrapping

Pic 1. Repackaging via wrapping

MSI Package Builder allows you to wrap both Windows Installer packages and executable installation packages. For each package, you can define if it should be repaired and uninstalled while repairing and uninstalling a generated MSI package. You can also specify a list of additional files, if required, and the parameters to be passed to the installer to perform install, uninstall and repair Pic 2. The provided packages are included into a created MSI package and saved into a project with the specified name for future usage. Detailed information on configuring wrapped packages is available in the Wrapping Existing Installations chapter.

Configuring MSI package

Pic 2. Configuring MSI package

The next step is to provide a path to the location to save a resulting MSI package to and configure the package. Detailed information on configuring an MSI package is available in the Creating an MSI Package chapter.

As soon as the package is configured, press Finish to proceed with its creation. The created package is saved to the specified location and is ready for deployment. The project representing the current repackaging process is also saved to the projects storage.