What's New in Version 5

New and improved features

• Improved Live Update and Major Update wizards

Resolved issues

• Wizard pages sizes are calculated incorrectly on PCs with specific OS settings

Resolved issues

• Some certificates from those installed in the operating system that can be used for signing a generated MSI package are missing in the signing certificate choosing dialog
• Possible critical error when generating MSI packages based on specific monitoring results

New and improved features

• Added navigation through the file system changes using a keyboard when the folder content preview part of the File System view is active.

Resolved issues

• File system changes that contain the '~' symbol in the path are treated incorrectly during monitoring
• A service binary path is incorrectly detected during monitoring in case when it contains system variable placeholders
• The system folder definition placeholders may be incorrectly processed in specific environments

Resolved issues

• MSI package may be generated incorrectly when the project contains file system paths that are not rolled to system folders
• Possible errors during deployment of MSI packages that do not allow to complete the installation process

New and improved features

• Added an option to define custom icons for shortcuts
• Added an option to repackage installations launched via batch (.cmd and .bat) files
• Added an option to wrap installations launched via batch (.cmd and .bat) files
• Improved the Live Monitoring technology to allow capturing shortcuts with custom icons

Resolved issues

• Potential errors while decompilation of MSI packages containing external files
• Compatibility issues with Windows 10 Preview

New and improved features

• Improved the accuracy of live monitoring

Resolved issues

• The services that use the extension different from the .exe are monitored incorrectly
• The MULTI_SZ values may be incorrectly included into a resulting MSI package, that leads to value applying errors during the package deployment
• Specific changes made to the side-by-side assemblies configuration under live monitoring are rendered incorrectly when deploying a resulting package
• Operations performed to the NTFS hard links are incorrectly captured during monitoring

Resolved issues

• It is impossible to install a generated MSI package when its size is greater than 2 GB
• Potential fatal errors while generating an MSI package

New and improved features

• Added validation of assembly files while creating and editing side-by-side assemblies

Resolved issues

• Possibly wrong detection of side-by-side assembly files during the monitoring process
• Potential error while loading icons for generated MSI packages

Digital singing of MSI packages

If you have a digital certificate, you can sign the generated MSI packages. The digital signing options can be configured on the application Preferences dialog and can be overrided, if required, in MSI project properties. Digitally signed MSI packages are compatible with any Windows distribution software that checks digital signatures before MSI deployment.

New and improved features

• Optimized disk space usage during the MSI packages generation process

Resolved issues

• Potential 'Out of system resources' error while choosing the processes to filter from those currently running
• The installation context ('Current User' or 'All Users') is not properly saved when creating a project via the 'Repackage Installation' wizard
• Possible fatal system error (leading to BSoD) when monitoring changes performed by specific installations

New and improved features

• The QWORD registry values are supported both in repackaging via monitoring and manual specification of registry changes

Resolved issues

• Specific DWORD values are incorrectly processed while importing registry changes
• The additional # symbol is mistakenly added to the registry values starting with this symbol
• The operation to be performed to the registry key is incorrectly extracted from an MSI package during decompilation

Permissions monitoring

The application allows monitoring of file system and registry permission changes, applied by the monitored installation. As the result, installations performing permission changes can be repackaged successfully using the installation monitoring approach.

New and improved features

• Improved monitoring of side-by-side assemblies
• Improved monitoring of Windows services

Resolved issues

• Specific keys are not removed from the registry while uninstalling a generated MSI package
• An MSI package cannot be generated if it is based on a project created via monitoring and containing a shortcut to a drive

Side-by-side assemblies repackaging

Installation packages that deploy side-by-side assemblies can be successfully repackaged using this version of the application. Previous versions of the application reported side-by-side configuration errors during repackaging of such installations, but now the improved installation monitoring module can repackage side-by-side assemblies. The captured assemblies are displayed on the corresponding tab where you can review and change assemblies, if required.

.NET Framework dependency detection

If the monitored installation deploys .NET assemblies, the application automatically detects .NET Framework required for these assemblies and configures the corresponding dependency that is changed when the MSI package is deployed. You can change .NET Framework requirements using the corresponding option when you configure an MSI package.

New and improved features

• Improved handling of shortcuts creation during the monitoring process
• Increased changes monitoring accuracy

Resolved issues

• Repackaging via monitoring does not work for the packages that install Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable
• Specific files required by the installed software package may be mistakenly skipped while monitoring performed changes
• The Show in Windows Programs and Features option does not work for specific installation packages
• Specific shortcuts may become invalid after rolling system folders

New and improved features

• Added an option to suppress the software installed via wrapped packages from being displayed in the Programs and Features section of the Windows Control Panel

Resolved issues

• Change type is not displayed for registry keys in monitoring results
• The MSI packages created via existing packages decompilation may be installed with errors
• Possible errors when closing the application

New and improved features

• An option was added to specify any command line to uninstall and/or repair an executable package wrapped into the generated MSI package
• The range of property definition placeholders used for wrapped package parameters configuration was extended

Resolved issues

• The predefined monitoring filters are corrected
• Installation completion is not detected correctly if the monitored installation launches more than 64 processes
• Some executable installations cannot be repackaged using wrapping
• Packages with external files cannot be repaired and uninstalled together with the generated package when wrapped into an x64 MSI

Brand-new user interface

The application interface is completely reworked. The new UI has a modern Ribbon-based look and has been designed to simplify repackaging, MSI configuration and generation tasks. It features the following improvements:

• The starting Welcome page with the list of main actions, help resources and recently opened projects
• New data editors with the options to sort and filter the displayed data
• New data management dialogs with extended options
• Improved wizards designed to simplify the main operations

Brand-new monitoring system with Intellectual Assistant

The Live Monitoring technology that tracks file system and registry changes has been significantly improved. The new monitoring system increases the repackaging success rate by 25% according to tests. The new system includes Intellectual Assistant that checks capturing results for problems and shows suggestions how to resolve them.

New repackaging method: installation wrapping

The new installation repackaging method allows wrapping one or multiple original installations into a single MSI package. It can be used if the original installations support silent deployment.

When adding a new original installation, you need to specify the location of the installation file and the command-line parameters used for installation in the silent mode. When the generated MSI package is installed, it runs the included original installations with specified silent deployment options to install them silently. The installations are deployed one-by-one according to the order you defined.

Extended and reorganized MSI generation options

The application allows you to create upgradable MSI packages using the improved upgrade options, which are represented in the MSI generation dialog. Using them, you can enable or disable upgrades and protect the MSI from downgrading. Also, during MSI generation, you can select the supported OS where the generated MSI package can be installed. The list of available OS includes the latest Windows versions, including Windows 8.1 and Windows 2012 R2.

The automated monitoring mode

This new feature is designed to simplify the repackaging process and improve the repackaging success rate. If you select the Automated Monitoring option in the Repackage Installation wizard, the application automatically stops installation monitoring and generates an MSI at the right time when the monitored installation and all related processes have been completed. It guarantees that the monitoring results include all required changes.

Multi-installation repackaging

You can repackage multiple installations into a single MSI package. This function is supported by both the monitoring and wrapping repackaging modes. You can specify multiple installations to be repackaged in the required order. In the monitoring mode, the specified installations are executed one-by-one and an MSI package is generated based on the monitoring results. In the wrapping mode, the specified installations are deployed silently when the MSI containing the installations is deployed.

Using MSI properties in project entries

If required, you can use the standard MSI properties in the file system and registry entries of MSI projects. For example, if a registry key includes the path to a file in a system folder, this path can be different on different OS, so if you specify just the path, the generated MSI can work incorrectly on other OS. In such cases, you can use MSI properties that refer to the standard system folder locations and are converted to the correct path during the MSI deployment.

New installation repackaging wizard

The new repackaging wizard is designed to help you repackage installations quickly and easily. It consists of just a few steps required to select the repackaged application and specify the repackaging options. The wizard guides you through the repackaging process, and you can find detailed on-screen instructions for every step. Also, the wizard includes recommendations for creating a repackaging environment and provides you with information on the repackaging best practices.

New and improved features

• Added options to suggest a feature and to report a problem directly from the application
• Improved logging and reworked error messages to provide more detailed info for troubleshooting