Software Deployment

the main advantages of MSI is it is very capable of delivery software to any platform as such making it extremely versatile. The downside being to cater for such a wide range of delivery techniques / technologies it must be complex

due to complexity you have a steep learning curve. most people spend the first 6 months making a mess with it. (some even more). When it comes time to uninstall you work out you have been making that mess at which point it is often too late.

uninstallation is difficult to achieve cleanly which is why many virtual technologies are surpassing MSI as a core delivery medium these days.

in my opinion MSI is still the most versatile delivery medium but some of those benefits are not a requirement of the end user.

I guess the question is best answered by asking you a few questions.

who is your target audience for your installers ? corporate or world wide user base ?

what is the reason you are asking this question in the first place?

ORIGINAL: jmcfadyen
what is the reason you are asking this question in the first place?

I bet, this was just another question asked in job interviews to the OP.

ORIGINAL: jmcfadyen

When it comes time to uninstall you work out you have been making that mess at which point it is often too late.


When it comes time to uninstall you work out you have been making that mess at which point it is often too late.

Soooo true. I've worked with too many MSI's that were poorly made that its not funny. Although I did get a chuckle when I read that line.

One of my "favorite" things is when I have to write an uninstall wrapper to compensate for the damages caused by a bad MSI when uninstalled.

WFP and WPR can only do so much to protect the OS from the sysadmin.

Dear jmcfadyen,

I couldn't understand the disadvantages of MSI from ur reply. Can you pls explain bit more ?