Repackager (packager) Wanna (need to) Be
I'm relatively new to many of the applications mentioned here as far as actually using them (Wise, Installshield, Admin Studio, etc). I've been doing desktop support for many years, and would like to learn to repackage both legacy and newer applications (for SCCM, etc deployments). Any tips how how to learn, where to start, and what products to use? I've searched pretty hard and most of the time, I get directed to Flexora's website for their one week training for a couple grand $$$. Thanks in advance.
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Posted by:
anonymous_89761
10 years ago
you can find some videos on youtube about packaging.
i currently use Flexera's AdminStudio and Microsoft App-V 5 for packaging and Sequencing.
just download the trial software and play with it (in combination with watching some videos, and reading some e-books), it should give you a good start.
Comments:
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Key skills to have are a good grasp of the Operating System your apps are going to land on, sound knowledge about the difference between system locations and user profile locations and insight into file system and registry security.
Second part is some knowledge of the most sensible process approach for packaging. There can be a lot of wasted effort if you just grab an app and start packaging.
The tooling to pick up will be determined by your client base. If it's MSI go with Admin Studio, for vitualization you can go with the vendor product or look into Virtualization Pack for Admin Studio.
Third part: get to know some basic scripting and know where to find community support (welcome!).
If you have a sponsor for your conversion to packager try to do the training course. It structures the learning process and gives you a running start. - EVEEN 10 years ago-
what about virtualization using microsoft's app-v sequencer ? you can download and try the app-v 5.0 sp2 beta for free (also read the sequencing guide: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27760 ) - anonymous_89761 10 years ago
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If you can do a course to does help you kick start your knowledge.
What Eveen said is quite true as well, if you have a strong desktop background it gives you a great advantage. In regards to SCCM, if you can get a friend to show you the ropes of adding, making a collection and deploying the apps it would be handy, you dont need to learn SCCM - its a pretty big field itself.
Also here is a good place to ask questions, but do some research before you ask (*Cough'unlikeSCCMGhost'Cough) as google normally answers most of your question. What you will normally find is the answer, but you need to ask a Q to understand it correctly. - rileyz 10 years ago -
Forget tools for now. Get hold of Phil Wilson's "The Definitive Guide To Windows Installer", read and digest it. You can know the tools inside out but without knowing the fundamentals of WI, you will struggle with anything other than simple applications.
There's also a similarly-named PDF floating around, "The Definitive Guide to Windows Installer Technology" which will be useful. - anonymous_9363 10 years ago-
Thanks Guys, I'm actually reading the Definitive Guide now, and it's a very interesting (as long as it's not too late at night) read. all the other post here are good too. From what I gather so far, the guide is a great place to start. I guess with my eagerness, I was wishing there was a way to spoon feed me the information needed to learn this craft. For example, here is your software, the first thing you would do with the file is this, the tool that you would do that with, is this. The method you would choose is this, etc. I know that this is in no way the same approach for every setup, but I assume that a set protocol would still be in place for the very basic to the more complex installs. Again, I know I'm being impatient, but I'll get there. Thanks a again for all of your post! - aprofit452 10 years ago
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maybe this can be helpfull: http://applicationpackagingbasics.blogspot.nl this blog explains some of the basics of packaging and packaging terminology. i also agree on what EVEEN says. - anonymous_89761 10 years ago
