Source Evaluation Before Packaging an Application
As you know an application needs to be evaluated before packaging, to decide whether the application is a legacy application [Non Windows Installer based] or an MSI.
There are several ways to do that. Most of the time I do it based on Windows Installer Service.
First disable "Windows Installer" service. To do that Start --> Run --> type SERVICES.MSC --> scroll down to "Windows Installer" service --> double click to open the windows --> under "Startup type" there are 3 options:
- Automatic
- Manual
- Disabled
Select "Disabled" to disable the service.
Try to install the application now. If the application installs, it is not based on Windows Installer Service. So it's a legacy application and we have to repackage it using SETUP CAPTURE method.
If the application is a Windows Installer based application [MSI] then during application install, you will see the following message
So you can proceed with TRANSFORM creation.
Attached are two vbscripts which will automate the process of disabling and enabling "Windows Installer" service.
Execute "Disable_WI.vbs" to disable the service and "Enable_Start_WI.vbs" is to enable and restart the service.
I hope it may help you guys.
Thanks,
Eshwar
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Comments
MSI in %temp%
Good practice to identify Vendor MSIs. However, in some setup driven packages, it automatically starts the Msiexec service in the setup.exe. in such a scenario you can also, Clean the user temp folder (%temp%), and invoke the setup.exe., on doing so, this would extract the MSI to the temp location.
You can also do a administrative installation of the setup.exe to get to know, if there is any MSI involved.
Setup.exe /a C:\test\
This will extract all the installation files being used to C:\test
Cheers'
Vijay
Microsoft MVP [Setup-Deploy]
Weblog: www.msigeek.com
few more ways
Here are a few more ways to do it:
1) Extract setup.exe through Winzip or Winrar. I recently did an application which was easily extracted through winrar.
2) Check if the count of MSI's increases in %Windows%\Installer folder. You can also check the titles of the msi there.
Hope this helps.
-Piyush
Altiris Certified Professional - WPS 7.0
Piyush Nasa Altiris Certified Professional (ACP)
http://msiworld.blogspot.com/
Another one
Number of msiexec.exe instances in the process list of task manager should also help identify this.
I normally prefer to do /a on
I normally prefer to do /a on setup.exe , if it is an msi it will extract to %temp% folder
Wiseuser
Altiris Certified Professional
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