Best Practices for the Scalable Free MSI Package Builder: Smart Packager CE

Best Practices for the Scalable Free MSI Package Builder: Smart Packager CE

The following are the best practices when using the Scalable Free MSI Package Builder – Scalable Smart Packager CE. They yield the best possible results while minimizing the post-capture modification of the package.

1. Close all non-essential applications. This helps to ensure the changes added via the Free MSI Packager Builder to the new MSI or App-V Package are only those changes made by the desired application and no other programs that were active on the system at the time of capture.

2. Use a clean system. Many applications do not fully uninstall, therefore subsequent reinstallations will not create the full set of files and registry keys associated with the package.

3. Stop anti-virus and other similar programs. It is not uncommon for anti-virus software to block applications from making changes to the system which would result in an incomplete repackaging.

4. Disable Windows update and other auto-updating programs.

5. Ensure the system is not busy performing other tasks, e.g. search indexing.

6. After installation is complete, wait a few seconds before stopping the monitoring process. Some installations continue modifying the system even after the installation program has completed. Non-MSI installations can spawn child processes which can continue to modify the system. Even MSI-based installations can use the Windows Installer Service to perform installation tasks after the initial setup has completed.

7. Perform the capture on a system that is very similar to the final target systems. For example, for an organization that uses Windows XP SP3 with .NET 4.0, do not perform the capture on Windows 7 SP1.

8. Consider handling dependencies separately from main applications.

9. Consider the use of a virtual machine as the machine on which the MSI package is captured.

For more information or to download Scalable’s Free MSI Packager Builder – Smart Packager CE, visit http://www.scalable.com/wininstall-le . IF you would like to packager Windows Installer Setups please visit http://www.scalable.com/products/wininstall-msi-packager-pro . For information on Scalable products visit http://www.scalable.com .