Windows 7

I'd love to see any updates to the current Wise tools, but years have passed since the last service packs were released and there is no evidence of any activity or resource within Symantec that is working on any new versions. No sign of any future roadmap either.
Michael_Grueber@symantec.com will get you the Product Manager for the Wise products - drop him an email and ask, but be prepared to sign non-disclosure agreements before any information is provided.

Windows 7 RTM is already available to OEMs and Early Adopters - also to holders of an MSDN or Technet subscription.

Wow .... not really the news I was hoping for.

Seems I will have to look into other options as well.
Although I will email the address provided... thanks EdT... appreciated.

Must say I fear for any product bought out by Altiris !!
Obviously not much care shown to individual products these days.

Thanks again guys

Has any one tried to Run Wise Package Studio 7 ( SP3) on Win 7 ? Does it install and Work ?
I have a requirement to run it on Win 7 in few months time but it is worrying that there is no news from Symantec.

I have searched around and have not got any info as to if\when these two products will have support for Windows 7.

Can anyone advise and even maybe point me to an article about it?

Hey Guys...

I sent my email yesterday and are still awaiting a reply.
By the sound of it I wont be able to tell you the response anway if they make me sign the NDA.

The installshield website and evaluation will get a hammering inthe next couple of months it seems.

Cheers and thanks to Edt yet again.

I have set up the Windows 7 Ultimate release in a VMWare VM - albeit with only 512K ram as my work laptop has only 1.5Mb total.

The first thing I installed was SQL Express Server 2008 SP1 - based on the guidance given in the Altiris KB article about setting up SQL Server Express 2005 for Wise Package Studio. I used the web based installer provided by MS, and selected mixed mode with a password set on the SA account. Once SQL was installed, I configured the services as per the KB article.
Next step was to install WPS7 SP3 (in server mode), and when this had completed, allow the VM to restart, and then run repository manager. The databases were set up using the <MachineName>\SQLEXPRESS database instance using Windows Authentication, and the databases were created and configured without error.
Then I started WPS and checked that both Windows Installer Editor and WiseScript Package Editor would start up without error.

All this was completed successfully, so I would suggest that WPS7 SP3 can indeed be used on Windows 7 RTM.  I did not find it necessary to change the default UAC settings although this did result in many requests for installation approval.

Those of you who are using SQL Express Server 2005 with WPS currently, may be interested to know that I tried the SP1 install of Express 2005 and there was a report displayed about known incompatibilities with Windows 7 which would require the installation of SP3 after installation. That prompted me to try Express 2008 SP1 instead, and that installed with no compatibility messages.

Hope this helps

EdT

I got a reply from Michael (Symantec) that they are planning to release WPS 8.0 ( win7 and windows 2008 server R2 supported ) by end of October or little bit after that.

WPS 8 is Wise PACKAGE Studio 8 - so I guess no mention of WIS 8 at this point, although the code sets are pretty much the same in as far as the Wisescript Editor and Windows Installer Editor are concerned.
Did he say whether it was planned for October 2009 or October 2010 ?

Good to hear. I hope they finally fix this bug: https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=34373&p=1 that has been there since Wise Installation version 4.x.

I've never quite figured out why, but each major release of a Wise tool has not routinely fixed previous known issues, much to everyone's annoyance.
It's not as if they don't have the bug information easily accessible in house either. As the above mentioned bug has a workaround, I suspect there have been insufficient complaints reported back to product management to justify spending developer time on a fix. Shame really - as many of these bugs appear to be trivial to fix.

I would also hope to see Visual Studio 2008 support in there, as well as Win7 and Server 2008 R2 already mentioned. After all, the beta of VS2010 is apparently making the rounds and will be not far off release by the time October arrives.....

I also mailed Michael Grueber about 'my' bug. We'll see.

To talk about this specific bug... the main idea with wildcards and path variables in Wise is to automate certain parts of the packaging (new files get added automatically etc.). The workaround causes this intention to fail completely. It is the only thing that causes user intervention in our automated packaging system.

We have upgraded to VS2008 and .NET3.5SP1 and our current products support Vista. Win7 is around the corner and I have already done some prestudies. I think we have to support it right after it is officially released. So far I haven't noticed any issues with Wise, but we are still doing all packaging in XP.

Michael Grueber answered that they are planning a release of WIS near the end of 2009. He also said that it may be possible for them to include a fix for the issue. Of course this is subject to change etc. etc.

I am happy that I at least got their attention.  :-)

Professional Development Systems bv. ( www.pds-site.com) is proud to announce that the new  Wise Package Studio 8 will be launched @ Packaging Event 2009.
On October 8. 2009 at the Amsterdam ArenA.

Symantec will present the Wise package Studio 8 edition during the Keynote session.

Don't miss it!

register now @www.packagingevent.com

It is now confirmed that "my" bug (https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=34373&p=1) will be fixed in the upcoming service pack of Wise Installation Studio 7. This is very good news!

Did anyone get any information on whether or not the new version of Wise Installation Studio will be supported on 64 bit versions of Windows 7?  The Packaging Event doesn't make any mention of Installation Studio.

My workstation just got upgraded to Windows 7 64 bit and installing WIS 7 SP1 breaks the Team Foundation Server integratation for Visual Studio 2008.  

The Launch in October is of Wise PACKAGE Studio 8 only.

There are no announced plans to release Wise INSTALLATION Studio 8, as far as I am aware.

JohanH's earlier post gave me the impression that he had specifically asked Mr. Grueber about Wise Installation Studio.

----- Quote -----
Michael Grueber answered that they are planning a release of WIS near the end of 2009. He also said that it may be possible for them to include a fix for the issue. Of course this is subject to change etc. etc.
---- End Quote -----

Doesn't WIS mean Wise Installation Studio? 

Yes, but only a service pack for version 7 is planned. I have no idea what fixes or features it includes, except for the above mentioned bug.

Thank you for the clarification.  Hopefully it will also allow WIS to run on 64 bit versions Windows 7.

 has anyone seen release notes on WPS 8.0 yet .. since the above said something about releasing Oct 8th

WPS8 was Launched at PDS earlier this month. That is marketing-speak for "It will ship sometime this year, if we're lucky..."

 does that mean launch to start developing

Maybe it means they raise the request for development time....

On a serious note, I do believe that much of the upgrade work had already been done some time back, but they were vacillating over whether to release wps7 sp4 or wps 8. 
Hopefully they will do some basic checking to verify Windows 7 operation now that it's RTM but based on past experience, official support won't be there before SP1 arrives.

So, in light of all of this information, I'm wondering if I should start looking into other products, like InstallShield.

I also like Wise Installation Studio for its ease of use.  Is Package Studio similar?  Is there an area in this application that basically looks like IS?

Any information is appreciated!

 FYI, they release WPS 8.0 last week, but they didn't update any of the SVS/SWV stuff(which really sucks) it does have Windows 7 support /WI 4.5 and SQL 2008.. check the KB

Hi,

After reading this thread, I am a little confused about Symantec selling WIS 8.0 upgrade licences at 719.40$. There no mention of the WIS 8.0 on Symantec's corporated site or Altiris knowledge base and licences are up for sale ...

What would we be paying for ?