The Windows Installer is included with Windows 2000, Office 2000 and Visual Studio. It allows programmers to customize corporate network installations of Windows and Office applications. This text shows how Windows Installer can be used to improve installation of new software.
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
For those old enough to remember pre-Windows times, the whole idea of writing an application to install an application seems bizarrely recursive. Nevertheless, Windows apps such as the 1-GB Microsoft Office suite need installers.
Windows-application installation has been a problem for years, and Microsoft's new installer is supposed to address and overcome existing installation problems. The new installer supports an installation database (in part to fix problems the Registry failed to solve), rollback support, application maintenance, advertisement (which makes features look installed but only actually installs them if the user asks for them), better administrative control over installation, and--best of all--a cure for DLL hell.
Naturally, VB/VBA Developer's Guide to the Windows Installer starts by installing the new installation SDK. Then it gets more complex. The new installer is supposed to cope with Windows 95, 98, NT 4, 2000, and the dozen or so major versions of these--which vary considerably under the surface. These adjustments are all controlled from the installer database, which is incompatible with all other Microsoft databases.
Using the new installer isn't trivial. Indeed, you'll reach page 200 before you'll feel you've learned enough to consider creating an installation routine--and then it's only by modifying an existing one. What comes across most in this book is the Byzantine complexity of Microsoft's new installer. If you're a Windows developer, however, you probably have little choice but to gain at least a basic understanding of the system--and this book does the job. --Steve Patient, Amazon.co.uk
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good General Info, But Short on How-To,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: VB/VBA Developer's Guide to the Windows Installer (Paperback)
This book provides good general information about the new Windows Installer, but it's weak on examples and how-to information. Only one chapter (Chapter 7) provides examples of the steps involved in using the Installer, and those examples are limited to modifying an existing .msi file, not creating one.The author promises a complete walk-through in Chapter 12, but it's not there. Instead, the chapter offers an overview of various installers (InstallShield, Visual Studio, and Wise). But again, there are no examples. Many developers are trying to figure out how to incorporate various Microsoft technologies, such as MDAC, into Windows Installer files. The book suggests using a custom action, but doesn't provide a step-by-step example of how to do it. This alone would have made the book worth its price.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good overview of the Windows Installer,
This review is from: VB/VBA Developer's Guide to the Windows Installer (Paperback)
This book would be a great book for someone who is new to the Windows Installer. Although it contains much of the same information as the SDK, it is much easier to read. Things added beyond the SDK include a discussion of Installer editing tools, a list of available merge modules and small notes throughout the book discussing little intricacies that add some value. A discussion of installing MDAC, a pain in NT, is also included. Things that would have been nice to see but were not included are examples of installing MTS packages, more examples of custom actions and their associated rollback and uninstall actions and some more information on creating patches. This is currently the only book on Windows Installer and it gives a nice overview but I don't think it's for the advanced Windows Installer developer. Personally I was looking for a little more detail than it gave but I still find myself using it for reference here and there.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Printed version of the SDK,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: VB/VBA Developer's Guide to the Windows Installer (Paperback)
I originally was looking for any book that would explain a little more about MSI technology in an easier fashion than the Microsoft MSI SDK help files. This book doesn't quite do it. It is nice to have the information printed out for browsing, and he does give a few examples of VB code that can be used to assist in gathering data for the MSI - but there isn't anything in this book that actually new, fresh, innovative or enlightening.
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