suggestions for a free msi packer? 1

[hovercraft]

Greetings, I'm new to server admin. I am going to need to make some msi's to propagate applications to workstations (as is my understanding, this is the easiest way to accomplish this)

Can anyone suggest a free msi packer that is tried and true (and easy interface if possible).

Thanks for your input,
Hovercraft

 

[porkchopexpress]

WinInstall 2003 LE is what we use unfortunatly they recently started charging $50 it was free before. You can find the 2000 version on the Windows 2000 server CD it's worth a try it has a straight forward GUI.

http://www.ondemandsoftware.com/PurchaseLE.asp

 

[wdoellefeld]

Might want to look at Advanced Installer

http://www.advancedinstaller.com/feats-list.html

(yay! shameless advertising. my side business)

http://www.frcp.net

 

[hovercraft]

Thanks for the info. I'm a bit unclear as to what is really involved in creating a msi.
What I'm trying to accomplish is application broadcasting for all workstations.

In order for a msi to work, do you have to know all the reg entries? and then somehow tell the msi packer to make the entries?

Do you perhaps know of a tutorial for doing such a thing?
We are running Win2000 server sp4.

Thanks and sorry for the probably simple questions. I'm new to this side of I.T.

-Hovercraft

 

[porkchopexpress]

If you use Wininstall LE then this is how it works.

You install Wininstall on a PC or server and a small app called disco.exe will be placed in a share (you might need to manually share this folder i can't remember).
Next you will need a second blank workstation with just windows installed, make sure you disable unnecessary services and don't install any AV software (disable the Windows update service as it always seems to get picked up).

At this point you need to connect to the share with the disco.exe file and run it, this creates a prescan of the stations folders and registry.

Now install your application and run it to check it works and reboot if necessary, make sure you only run what you need to as any changes will become part of the package.

Next run disco.exe again and this will compare the prescan to a post scan and will create an MSI package.

Take a look at this link below for details on how to deploy this package and post back with any questions.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Group-Policy-Deploy-Applications.html

 

[porkchopexpress]

Oh also if you're creating packages that you will want to use on 2k and XP PC's then create them on a 2k station for some reason they seem to work better than this way.

 

[hovercraft]

Thanks again Porkchop! The tutorial you suggested is fantastic.

I'm reading it now...

 

[porkchopexpress]

No probs.