Wise Toolkit 7.0 SP2 Release Notes

Article:DOC2061  |  Created: 2010-02-05  |  Updated: 2010-04-01  |  Article URL http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC2061
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Description



Build number 7.0.2.145

This document contains the following topics:

Introduction

Wise Toolkit provides the tools that let administrators create, customize, and manage installations.

Wise Toolkit consists of the following tools:

Wise InstallTailor Lets you easily customize Windows Installer installations. It simulates the installation, captures the options you select, and creates a transform file (MST) that incorporates those selections. At run time, you apply the transform to a Windows Installer package to customize the installation for a particular group of users.
WiseScript for NS

A WiseScript authoring environment that lets you create scripts to automate administrative tasks. WiseScript is a high-level scripting language in an easy-to-use, structured interface.

Use a WiseScript to perform the tasks that you cannot easily perform with your other tools. A WiseScript can retrieve information about a computer, prompt for input if necessary, and take action as a result of that information. A WiseScript collects and analyzes the data and takes action in real time.

Wise Toolkit is included with Software Management Solution. For more information, see the Software Management Solution 7.0 SP2 Release Notes, knowledge base article 49265.

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New features

These tools have been updated to the same level as the corresponding tools that appear in Wise Package Studio 8.0.

The new features of this release are as follows:

Updated software resource for installing Wise Toolkit.

WiseScript Editor and Wise InstallTailor have been combined into one software resource, which lets you install both tools at the same time. The new software resource is named Wise Toolkit. When you upgrade from an earlier version, the old, separate software resources remain in the Software Catalog to prevent breaking existing roll-out jobs.

Operating system support.

Support has been added for the creation of scripts that run on the following operating systems:

  • Windows Server 2008
  • Windows Server 2008 SP2
  • Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Windows XP SP3
  • Windows Vista SP1
  • Windows Vista SP2
  • Windows 7
Starting the tools.

On a computer that contains Wise Toolkit, start each tool as follows:

Wise InstallTailor On the Windows Start menu, click Programs > Altiris > WiseScript for NS.
WiseScript for NS On the Windows Start menu, click Programs > Wise Solutions > Wise InstallTailor.
New script actions.

WiseScript for NS now supports most of the script actions that are available in the WiseScript Editor that is available in Wise Package Studio.

The new script actions in WiseScript for NS are as follows:

  • Add Directory to PATH
  • Browse for Directory
  • Compiler Variable If/Else/End
  • Custom Billboard
  • Custom Dialog
  • Display Billboard
  • Display Text File
  • Edit Registry for SVS Layer
  • Evaluate Windows Installer Condition
  • Execute VBScript
  • Get Name/Serial Number
  • Get Windows Installer Property
  • Halt Compilation
  • Modify Component Size
  • Play Multimedia File
  • Prompt for Filename
  • Prompt for Text
  • Radio Button Dialog
  • Set Control Attributes
  • Set Control Text
  • Set Current Control
  • Set Windows Installer Property
  • Win32 System Directory
  • Wizard Loop
Upgraded Actions list.

In Script Editor, the Standard and Custom tabs have been replaced with an All Items and Custom title bar. When you click a title bar, it displays that group's list of actions. You can add additional groups and add any actions that appear in the All Items group to the Custom group or any group that you add.

Ability to check for new Windows operating systems.

Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 has been added to the Check Configuration script action, which lets you determine whether a specific operating system is running on a target computer.

Specify a mapped network drive as the installation directory.

Users with less than administrative privileges can select a mapped network drive as the installation directory when such installations are run on computers running Windows Vista or later.

Create a WiseScript portable project.

You can create a portable WiseScript project that contains all of the files in a WiseScript including its source files. A portable project is a self-extracting .EXE. Use it to perform the following tasks:

  • Easily move WiseScript projects from one computer to another without having to copy source files.
  • Share WiseScript projects with others, who can then open and edit your WiseScript with all of its source files.

To access this option in WiseScript for NS, on the File menu, click Create Project Package.

Support for an increased number of variables

The maximum number of variables that you can define with Set Variable actions has been increased to 400. The documentation incorrectly states that you can define up to 986 variables.

ElseIf Statement action.

An If Statement along with an ElseIf Statement now always checks the condition of the ElseIf Statement.

Get the operating system's processor type.

The Is OS 64 Bit option has been added to the Get System Information script action to determine whether the destination computer is running a 64-bit operating system. The value of the variable you specify is set to 1 if the computer is running a 64-bit operating system, and 0 if not.

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Installation and upgrade

Prerequisites

The package for installing Wise Toolkit is included with Software Management Solution. Before you can access the Wise Toolkit package, the following products must be installed on the Notification Server computer:

  • Symantec Management Platform 7.0 SP4.
    See the Symantec™ Management Platform 7.0 SP4 Release Notes, knowledge base article 49811.
  • Software Management Solution 7.0 SP2.
    See the Software Management Solution 7.0 SP2 Release Notes, knowledge base article 49265.

You can install Wise Toolkit on any computer that meets the following requirements:

Computer/processor PC with a Pentium III-class processor
Minimum: 800 MHz
Recommended: 1 GHz
Optimal: 2 GHz
Operating system Minimum: Windows 2000 SP4
Recommended: Windows XP Professional SP2 or later
Also supported: Windows Vista, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows 7

New installation

You can install the Symantec Management Platform and Software Management Solution by using the Symantec Installation Manager. You can download the installation files directly to your server or you can create offline installation packages.

For more information, see the Symantec Management Platform Installation Guide, at http://go.symantec.com/sim_doc.

When you install Software Management Solution, a software resource for the Wise Toolkit is created in the Software Catalog. You can use Managed Software Delivery or Quick Delivery to install these tools. We recommend that you install these tools on an administrator’s Desktop.

To install the Wise Toolkit tools

  1. In the Symantec Management Console, on the Manage menu, click Software.
  2. In the left pane, under Software, click Software Catalog > Deliverable Software > Releases.
  3. In the right pane, click the following software resource:
    Wise Toolkit x
    where x is the version number.
  4. On the Actions menu, click Actions and select the delivery method.
    You can use either Managed Software Delivery or Quick Delivery.
    For more information about these delivery methods, see the Software Management Solution User Guide.

Upgrade

When you upgrade to Software Management Solution 7.0 SP2 from an earlier version, the Wise Toolkit installation program is upgraded too. The Wise Toolkit installation program is represented by the Wise Toolkit software resource in the Software Catalog.

For more information about upgrading Software Management Solution, see the Symantec Management Platform Installation Guide, at http://go.symantec.com/sim_doc.

After you upgrade the Wise Toolkit software resource, you can use it to upgrade the Wise Toolkit tools on individual computers.

To upgrade the Wise Toolkit tools

  1. On each computer that contains Wise Toolkit, uninstall the existing version of the Wise Toolkit tools.
    See Uninstalling Wise Toolkit from individual computers.
  2. Install Wise Toolkit 7.0 SP2 as described in New Installation.

Data migration from earlier versions

All the data that was created in Wise Toolkit 6.x and earlier versions of 7.x is supported in 7.0 SP2 without the need for data migration.

Depending on where you store your WiseScripts, you might need to move them to another computer.

Uninstalling Wise Toolkit from individual computers

You can uninstall the Wise Toolkit tools and remove their Start menu shortcuts from the individual computers that you installed it on.

To uninstall Wise Toolkit

  1. On a computer that contains Wise Toolkit, on the Windows Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs.
  2. In the Add or Remove Programs dialog box, click Wise InstallTailor, and then click Remove.
  3. Repeat the preceding step to remove WiseScript for NS.
  4. Close the Add or Remove Programs dialog box.

Installation and upgrade issues

The following table lists the known issues that are related to installing and upgrading this product. If an article ID is included, you can click the link for additional information.

Issue Article ID

No installation or upgrade issues have been reported.

  

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Fixed issues in this release

The following table lists the previous issues that were fixed in this release. If an article ID is included, you can click the link for additional information.

Issue Article ID
Windows Vista-related issues.
  • Dialog controls were not able to recognize mapped drives on a computer that runs Windows Vista with UAC enabled.
  • Resolved the problem of per user shortcuts being installed to each user's profile on a computer that runs Windows Vista.
  • The Get System Information script action could not retrieve the First Network Drive on a computer running Windows Vista with UAC enabled. This custom action now works unless the network drive requires a password, in which case it will not be detected.

  • When the Check Configuration action checked for the Windows XP operating system on a computer that was running Windows Vista, the check failed. The check should have have returned true on a computer running Windows XP or later.

  
Include scripts caused infinite loops.

If an include script occurred more than once in the same .WSE file, it sometimes caused an infinite loop.

  
Digital signature problem.

Digitally-signed WiseScript .EXEs did not return a return code.

  
Compiler variables were overwritten.

If the _WISE_ variable in the installation project did not match the path on the computer, then when the installation was compiled using the /d switch, the compiler variables were overwritten.

  
Missing parameters in Parse String actions.

In the Dialog Script Editor, parameters were erroneously deleted from Parse String actions.

  
Execute Program action.

When an Execute Program action ran multiple times within a While Loop, memory leak problems occurred. This performance issue has been resolved.

  
Exit Installation action.
  • When you create an Exit Installation action, you can use a variable enclosed with % in the Application Exit Code field. For example, with a WiseScript wrapper that executes an MSI, you could type %INSTALL_RESULT%. The value of the Application Exit Code would then be the same as the exit code of the MSI. You would then not have to create an Exit Installation action for each possible value that Windows Installer could return.
  • The Exit Installation action is now able to return a failure flag to the MIF file that you specify on the Microsoft SMS page when there is a failure.
  
File backup.

On the Backup Replaced Files dialog box, an end user can select to create backups of replaced files. If the content of a file did not change but the date/time stamp changed, the file was not backed up. This type of file is now backed up.

  
Registry key value was deleted erroneously.

If an installation appended a value to a multi-string (REG_MULTI_SZ) registry key, uninstalling the installation removed the entire registry key value instead of just the appended value.

  

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Known issues in this release

The following issues are unresolved in this release. If an article ID is included, you can click the link for additional information.

Issue Article ID
SVS-related script actions are not included.

Normally, WiseScript Editor contains several script actions that let you manage virtual layers on client computers. Except for the Edit Registry for SVS Layer action, these actions do not appear in this product.

  
Some additional script actions are not included.

The following script actions, which are included in other WiseScript products, are not included in WiseScript for NS:

Create Virtual Directory
Install Windows Mobile Application Settings
Install WiseUpdate Client
Reboot System
Set Web Permissions

  
The Help menu incorrectly contains an option to open a Reference Manual.

A PDF version of the User Guide is not included with either of the Wise Toolkit tools. However, the Help menus contain an option for a Reference Manual. If you click this option, no manual opens.

  
WiseScript for NS has a different name in Add or Remove Programs.

In the Add or Remove Programs dialog box, WiseScript for NS is listed as WiseScript for CMS.

  

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Where to get more information

The product installation includes the following documentation:

Document Description Location

Help

Information about how to use this product, including detailed technical information and instructions for performing common tasks.

Help is available for each of the Wise Toolkit tools.

This information is available in HTML help format.
  • In the individual tool, on the Help menu, under Help Topics.
    Context-sensitive help is available for most screens in the Wise Toolkit tools.
    You can open context-sensitive help by pressing F1 on any window or screen in the tool.
  • The Documentation Web site, which is available at the following URL:
    http://www.altiris.com/Support/Documentation.aspx

For more information, you can use the following resources:

Resource Description Location

Implementation Guide

Information about how to install, configure, and implement this product.

This information is available in PDF format.

The Documentation Web site, which is available at the following URL:
http://www.altiris.com/Support/Documentation.aspx

Symantec Management Platform Release Notes

Information about new features and important issues in the Symantec Management Platform.

This information is available as an article in the knowledgebase.

https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=45141&p=1

You can also search for the product name under Release Notes.

Installing the Symantec Management Platform products

Information about using Symantec Installation Manager to install the Symantec Management Platform products.

This information is available as an article in the knowledgebase.

https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=45732&p=1

Altiris 7 Planning and Implementation Guide

Information about capacity recommendations, design models, scenarios, test results, and optimization best practices to consider when planning or customizing an Altiris 7 Infrastructure for your organization.

This information is available as an article in the knowledgebase.

https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=45803&p=1

Knowledge base

Articles, incidents, and issues about this product.

http://kb.altiris.com/

Symantec Connect (formerly the Altiris Juice)

An online magazine that contains best practices, tips, tricks, and articles for users of this product.

http://www.symantec.com/connect/endpoint-management-virtualization

Online Forums

Forums for users of this product.

http://forums.altiris.com/

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