Software Deployment

ORIGINAL: chugger93

Im using NetInstall (by Enteo) to deploy my software applications/upgrades. However it looks like it only takes MSI files. Some of my apps are setup.exe's, etc. How do I convert these over to MSI? With another app, or?

Hello Chugger,

please check again :)
enteo NetInstall can handle unattended setups, MSIs, Microsoft patches, PnP-Drivers, and of course also non-MSI setups.
This repackager is called "spy" and can be used from the main NetInstall manager GUI.

So there really is no need to use 3rd party packagers or any other tricks. simply do an intitial analysis, run your .exe, do a second analysis, done! [:)]

if you have any further questions i'd be glad to help!

Martin Appel
Senior Consultant
Team enteo Software

You can either;

a) Create a setup 'wrapper' MSI which calls setup via custom action - however your setup.exe would need to support silent install if you don't want any user interaction. Using this method you would not be able to take advantages of windows installer functionality such as advertising, self repair, version control, shared component counting etc. You may also have problems uninstalling your packages again unless you can also cater for that in your wrapper.

b) Repackage your installation into MSI format i.e. capture your existing setup.exe installation using a suitable application (whether you go for Wise, InstallShield, WinInstall, MaSaI Editor etc is up to you) to create your 'proper' MSI package.

Neither option is easy if you are new to MSIs - option b is by far preferred but would take a lot more work and considerable packaging experience to achieve.

Fortunately [;)] there is no (reliable) tool to magically convert setup.exe installs to MSI format...

Cheers,
Rob.

Really? Wow thanks, I'll try that [:)]