We are going over to active directory and will be using it to install the software on machines, but some of the older software isn't .msi so we will have to repackage it. Currently using WinInstall LE, as its free but it is not very customisable sadly. Anyone have any experience (any at all!) in this? Any recommended programs? www.installaware.com is looking quite nice so far.
To be honest no - but I can tell you to stay away from SMS ... it really is pants except for completely generic solutions...!! Stu
There is an excellent installer called Inno, that is completely free Also supports translations, and lots of other good stuff. They even have a news server: news.jrsoftware.org visit http://www.jrsoftware.org/ Forget install shield, this is much easier to use, you just create .iss files (just a text file with a different extension), and add different sections, compile it into a setup.exe and your away Also, there is a way of handling msi files, but you will need to investigate on the web site, as we don't use them. Heres an example of what an iss file looks like (probably takes 30-60 minutes to get comfortable with): [Setup] OutputBaseFilename=Setup OutputDir=C:\Package Compression=lzma/ultra LicenseFile=license.txt AlwaysRestart=No [Languages] Name: "lang"; MessagesFile: "Inno.isl" [Tasks] Name: "desktopicon"; Description: "Create Desktop Icon"; GroupDescription: "Additional Icons"; [Files] Source: "D:\Projects\myprogram.exe"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion Source: "D:\Projects\mylib.dll"; DestDir: "{sys}"; Flags: sharedfile [Icons] Name: "{group}\My Program"; Filename: "{app}\myprogram.exe"; WorkingDir: "{app}" Name: "{userdesktop}\My Program"; Filename: "{app}\myprogram.exe"; Tasks: desktopicon; WorkingDir: "{app}"
Hardly. The main IT Dept has nearly every program we need on it except for 50 or so specialist ones. Gotta be .msi as thats all active directory supports.
You're gonna have to do some research about this, but I think there are some active directory answers on the jrsoftware news server or web site, or you could post the question to the news server and see what happens.
I guess I'll need to justify my points If they are custom scripts for inhouse developments then fair play to them! If not and they just wrap up standard white-box installations it just a generic installation. To write an SMS script for a complex installation SMS doesn't give you a great deal of flexibility. The biggest example is where you develop a system for installation to different sites. SMS only really gives you "value" substitution from an text answer file. If this is mechanism is inflexible - for example your values need to sit in (say) an .config file then the only viable option is to shell out to a script file and execute it. Fine; except that there is a 256 character limit on passing information to the script file... useless. When your distributing a standard installation remotely via SMS - something at which it is good (which I guess is your scenario) then I agree it is useful. But for developers trying to create custom install scripts it is not what I would call flexible ...
