Creating MSI files

Raumarik

Raumarik

Raumarik

Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2003
Posts
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Anyone got an easy to use MSI creator? I have an application I'd like to automate the install off on windows 2003 server so it's pushed out to certain clients.

I've looked at Orca etc but surely there's a less ugly, command line driven program around that doesn't cost a fortune just for a GUI front end :(

As usual time is the killer, I can't spend hours fiddling about in the command prompt when I can drag/drop in a GUI. Why oh why don't people give me warning of things like this ;)
 
MSI Packaging suites cost I'm afraid. If it's a quick one-off job you can install Wise Package Studio on a 30-day free trial though.

Which app are you needing packaged up anyway?
 
It's a council made application plus files and registry keys. It's a complete mess to be honest which is why I need to make my own. If I have to I'll try and do it all manually using ORCA or something similar but I'm not looking forward to it!

It's a pain to install and I've got 80 of them to do by Tuesday and another 200 by the end of the month. Time wise I'll manage but i'd rather spend half the time figuring out how to so this so I can use the knowledge for other installs later on, I'm in this situation far too often :p
 
No it doesn't have to be but it would be handy if I could build them now as I keep ending up in the same situation. I've installed a few programs using scripts but to be honest it's a method I'd rather do away with so my login scripts remain fairly short and clean.

One of the major problems is Java Runtime environment (JRE) Part of it involves getting that to install silently which I've tried to do with a script and info from the Java site without success, seems their method doesn't work with newer version :(

It's all very annoying!
 
Give InnoSetup a try:

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php

It's free, and is great for quickly putting together robust installation packages. Inno isn't based on Windows Installer, but it is widely used in the ISV community. I switched to it myself when I discovered just how many PCs have a damaged or antiquated version of Windows Installer.

Read the examples and help for an hour or so and you'll be good to go - it really is that good!
 
You might also want to give the nullsoft installer a go http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page completely free and capable of doing what your looking for.

I have used this for building custom installers in the past, and once you get the hang of the scripting files it's a doddle :) oh and once you've got your installer up and running, getting the un-installer working is trivial.
 
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