Customer Reviews

Practical Windows Installer Solutions for Building InstallShield Setup Applications

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you've got nothing better to do than to read a book to get pointers about what's worth looking into further, then this is the book for you. The writing style is very inconcise, incomplete, and difficult to read. For example, on page 442, the Author writes "You must also set permissions on the ArtDocument.dsa file that is being installed by the Example component..." but what he really meant is "If, for example, you want to set permissions on the ArtDocument.dsa file...". As another example of where this book comes up short, I was looking for how to open up an installed folder's permissions to access by all users, a common and simple installation task. In its 40 pages of complex explanations about handling lock-down environments, this book doesn't tell you. It does explain the concept, with one very specific example for a specific user, but to find out how to do it for all users, you have to go to InstallShield's web page and look it up. The InstallShield web page is actually far superior; it explains the whole thing succinctly in one paragraph with 8 bullets, which is what this book ought to do, but doesn't. I'd have given it a one star rating, except the book did provide me with enough vocabulary about installations to look up the information I needed on the InstallShield web page!

"Practical Windows Installer Solutions for Building InstallShield Setup Applications" is quite a useful book yet not enough to master creation of MSI files. I didn't see so far a single book that would be sufficient to fully cover all the quirks of the Windows Installer Service. The chapter about NT security is OK, but the rest of the book gives insufficient amount of valuable information, and sometimes lack interest or excitement.

I would have recommended participating in the "InstallSite Forum" in addition to reading this book. Also, "VB/VBA Developer's Guide to the Windows Installer" by Mike Gunderloy, now available in electronic form for free download, is worth attention, and it is very friendly and easy to read.

This is a very good book, period. It is a little bit hard to read at times, because of the sheer volume of information it contains. However, if you don't read the book, you will learn what it explains the hard way, trust me. I am speaking from the perspective of someone who would have benefitted enormously from reading this book earlier. Windows Installer is a highly unusal technology, and you need this practical guide to avoid serious problems with your setup application.

You do need quite a bit of background knowledge to be able to follow some of the exlanations in the book, and I do feel that the discussion goes too deep at times. However, this is all details, get the book and read it.