Software Deployment

Hi all,

Here's my latest situation.  We have a set of various installs, some much more complex than others, some wrapped in an .exe etc.  What we may soon have to do is offer the same applications, only rebranded (new icon's, different product name, shortcuts with description verbiage changes, etc).  Here are my thoughts...

1)  Duplicate all package templates, make the required changes to the second set of installations, and maintain two streams of installs for basically the same app.  This is probably the least desirable as, like I said some of the installs are complex with many DuplicateFiles table entries, the maintenance of which is time consuming for the current installation, among other things.

2) Change our installs to maybe add another Feature to house the changes for the additional branding tasks.  The only problem with this is on first install, I would have to offer a control for configuration 1 or configuration 2 selection.  This just would present the opportunity for users to make a mistake.  I can see a way around this if the second configuration is based on or can be tied to some other universal registry entry that could be searched, property set.

3)  Create and use a Transform to deliver the package changes.  I'm thinking this is the way to go.

Again, as far as I know, here is what is required for the rebranding...

New Product Name
Same Shortcuts, but with verbiage that reflects the alternate name
New graphics/icons - I'm thinking most of these can be embedded in the actual .exe so nothing may need to be done here.

As far as the installation graphics themselves, I'm thinking that we move to a more universal, company centered set of graphics for the installs so they are not product specific.

Does anyone have any pointers, experience delivering different configurations of the same app.

Any help appreciated!!