/build/static/layout/Breadcrumb_cap_w.png

Top ten worst MSIs

When responding, I'm not interested in a particular order, just a reasonably fluid list of the junk that's around.

Owen suggested JRE in a response to a post earlier, to which I'd add Nero and BusinessObjects.

Next!

0 Comments   [ + ] Show comments

Answers (32)

Posted by: clyrigham 15 years ago
Orange Belt
0
My GOD PointSec is the worst to packaging!
Posted by: reds4eva 15 years ago
Second Degree Blue Belt
0
My top 10 wouldnt include many that are MSI's to start with, ie. Oracle, SQL2005 (although that has msi's, but that easily tops my list). Strangely enough the ones that people complain about the most, Java, SAP, I had no issues.
The one that has given me the most grief lately was Adobe Indesign CS3, painfully huge and clunky.
Ive also been given media and asked to package a ClickOnce app, now that was fun.
Posted by: Blue_Demon 15 years ago
Orange Senior Belt
0
Most Adobe apps, the validations are horrible.
Posted by: anonymous_9363 15 years ago
Red Belt
0
Oh yeh! How could we omit Adobe's dog's breakfast MSIs!

And BTW, I'm looking for vendor MSI nominations. We'll be here 'til Doomsday discussing stuff we've re-packaged.
Posted by: jimmyx 15 years ago
Purple Belt
0
My vote would go to these

SPSS- Does not support advertised shortcuts and their licensing method can be a nightmare!

Northgate Arinso Client- Endless install\uninstall issues.

Blackbaud- Raizers Edge - The vendors had no idea what a per-user install was and would not support any changes via a transform.

Activtest-ECDL Client- Released the MSI on the day of an upgrade with no documentation. I then found out that the package did not work with a transform and they would not support any customizations!

Jimmy
Posted by: pgiesbergen 15 years ago
Orange Belt
0
Most vendor MSI's are bad. Validation, ICE errors? Who cares!

-Novell Groupwise 7. It does not support self repair. Turned out to be a custom action that searched for existing email clients, during a repair it found itself ->hung ca! Brilliant. It had more stupid things which I don't remember.

-Medialab and directRT, both from the same vendor and can be started from each other. Uninstalling one breaks the other, no advertised shortcuts

-AutoCAD 200? has some custom actions set to run in user context where they should run in system context
Posted by: kiptek 15 years ago
Second Degree Green Belt
0
Let's not forget IBM's crazy suites with their recursively asinine folder structures that go on for ever & are replicated across tools & require administrator permissions just to install!!! & their inclusion of customized java folders that love to fight the JREs on your base image!
Posted by: JasonWMcB 15 years ago
Senior Yellow Belt
0
Symantec MSIs get my vote. They are so ladened with custom actions they are nothing more than a legacy installer with an MSI wrapped around it. I understand the idea of Anti-Virus being security software but its still a bad MSI and the pcAnywhere installer is no better. And we'll the discussion of the products themselves to another day.
Posted by: bearden3 15 years ago
Purple Belt
0
One word - Hyperion. That should cover several apps! I love them all - not. [sm=rolleyes.gif]

-Lewis
Posted by: reds4eva 15 years ago
Second Degree Blue Belt
0
LOL @ Novell Groupwise 7, found itself and hung, now that is funny.

Documentum App Conectors 5.3 and Documentum Client for Outlook 5.3
A new version came out, also v5.3, but the new version had the same product code as the old version, it (tried to) used a minor upgrade, but it didnt work if you had the older msi already installed (strange that), plus the client that required this stupid app only used major upgrades. I couldnt transform it either (cant remember why) so ended up having to edit the msi to get the thing to work.
Posted by: jmcfadyen 15 years ago
5th Degree Black Belt
0
all the earlier versions of Reuters and bloomfield apps (before they tried to support corporate deployments)

practically everything that ever came out of an installshield installscript release. why they introduced a scripting engine that allows working around things that were developed for good reason I will never know.
Posted by: aogilmor 15 years ago
9th Degree Black Belt
0
I think you mean Bloomberg but you're right [8D]
Impossible to automate last time I saw it.
Posted by: kkaminsk 15 years ago
9th Degree Black Belt
0
ORIGINAL: VBScab
Oh yeh! How could we omit Adobe's dog's breakfast MSIs!


Heh, maybe if we post enough Adobe will get a clue?

Livelink and DM are also awesome but after much abuse from one of my clients OpenText actually fixed issues with their LiveLink MSI!?

Document Management, we've tried to use the vendor methods on many occasions but a setup capture with Wise has consistently yielded better results. Hmm, maybe they need to look into this installer some more?
Posted by: mikesyr 15 years ago
Senior Yellow Belt
0
ORIGINAL: jimmyx

SPSS- Does not support advertised shortcuts and their licensing method can be a nightmare!


I have to disagree with this somewhat. I will agree that any version before SPSS 16 sucked big time. SPSS 16 and 17 support .mst and Property Manager customizations for licenses, which were a godsend and flawless for both individual licenses and license server configurations.

As for Advertised shortcuts, we didn't have any need for self healing SPSS, so I cannot comment on that.

As for other applications:

Anything from Apple(annoying really).

Anything from Adobe(license validation oy vey)

Terrible MSI's.
Posted by: nzdude 15 years ago
Second Degree Brown Belt
0
The MSI for Tower Software TRIM Context client is just plain nasty (including custom actions to add and remove desktop icons during the install!!!), and I spent the better part of a month arguing with Oracle about their Oracle Drive client install.
Posted by: anonymous_9363 15 years ago
Red Belt
0
I spent the better part of a month arguing with Oracle about their Oracle Drive client install.It's generally a truism that arguing with vendors is somewhat less productive than engaging your forehead with the nearest wall. Nowadays, I tell them what I think they should know, then let them get on with it.
Posted by: JeanM 15 years ago
Senior Yellow Belt
0
Can't forget about Java JRE. It's command line switches that aren't consistent with multiple versions. The installer that does not remove old versions, the reg hacks to disable updates...
Posted by: anonymous_9363 14 years ago
Red Belt
0
Can't forget about Java JRE. The JRE I mentioned in my original post? Quite so...

The installer that does not remove old versions, To be fair, they're designed to co-exist, they don't NEED to be uninstalled.
Posted by: RJ 14 years ago
Purple Belt
0
PGP:)..worst for pacakging..it crashed my PC
Posted by: jndietz 14 years ago
Yellow Belt
0
I think Adobe and JRE take the cake on this one...for sure.

Also, Street Atlas, John Deere software, and some AutoDesk applications.... NIGHTMARES.
Posted by: jmcfadyen 14 years ago
5th Degree Black Belt
0
windows installer SDK's

they drop a bunch of msi's which then need to be installed. would be better just installing the files to save the pain of multiple installs

orca for examples hardly needs a separate msi installer. would of been better as a selectable feature.
Posted by: Estes 14 years ago
Second Degree Blue Belt
0
+1 on Adobe products, and anything developed by a city/state government employee.
Posted by: fritoz 14 years ago
Orange Belt
0
+1 for any Adobe & JRE versions.

IBM/Adobe/Symantec/Sun - the Common denominator here seems to be any major Microsoft competitor and even Microsoft themselves not adhering to their own standards!! [8|]
Posted by: misterd 14 years ago
Second Degree Blue Belt
0
Put me down for ArcGIS 9.0.

It's done so bad that you cannot upgrade to ArcGIS 9.2 because ArcGIS 9.0 can't be uninstalled enough!

I had to create cleanup scripts!
Posted by: Cybermage 13 years ago
Orange Belt
0
I vote for al the setups that contains multitrapped msi. Where there installshield setup.exe glued al the msi together to pass over variables/properties
Where i have to find out with variable/propertie is the input for the next msi.
Most time repackageding fails also and the vendor do not give any support for trying to automate it.
Top of my list that contains all of above is the application Xcelera. it's a application for medical purpose.
Let say most medical applications is bit of a challange when i compared with the most office applications because of the following.
A medical specialist build a applicatie in his free time to solve someting he had encountered for.
Then when it grows above it;s head it wil be sold to a company in the field.
They do the marking but most time no improvement of the code. Other medical departments buy the stuf.
So the IT department end up with a lot of <CENCORED>
Posted by: bearden3 13 years ago
Purple Belt
0
Hey Ian.

Did you ever do anything with this - as compile a top 10 worst list? Just curious...
Posted by: anonymous_9363 13 years ago
Red Belt
0
Nah, it was just a bit of fun :)
Posted by: jmaclaurin 12 years ago
Third Degree Blue Belt
0
Kicking an old thread because its too good a rant to pass up.

A poorly made MSI would have to be the MS Visual C++ 2008 Redist 9021022. It extracts to the root of the c: drive leaving a pile of files post install/uninstall.

Almost ALL the apps from Adobe (I say almost all because some have improved from time to time). Same with IBM and HP because of the Tech Support typical response to a crappy installer is that it will be fixed in the next version in which you will have to pay for the upgrade.

I forgot to mention Autodesk. An MST that changes the GUID of the installing MSI?!?! Umm hello, Uninstall?!
Posted by: Arminius 12 years ago
Second Degree Green Belt
0
Egad, trying to limit this to the top 10 MSIs that keep us employed is like trying to list the top 10 hottest people I'd like to get to know better. There are a lot that should make the list but the list is too short.

But I do have to say "thank you" to Novell, AutoDesk, and Adobe. Their products certainly help my long-term employment prospects.
Posted by: Matias M Andersen 12 years ago
Senior Yellow Belt
0
I encountered Pinnacle studio a couple of years ago, and it still get the chills thinking of it...
Posted by: kardock 12 years ago
Second Degree Green Belt
0
global software spreadsheet server.

i've never saw worst.

to give you an idea, the manual installation works once out of two times.
Posted by: itolutions 12 years ago
Purple Belt
0
Adobe, Microsoft, Symathec - internal quality (the content of MSI) is [:'(], but external quality (the count of success installations) is enough good [:)]
IBM - different quality from package to package
Oracle (Sun) - external/internal quality [:'(], but easy to repackge or automate
SAP - repacking prc take a lot of time, but external quality is pretty good (easy to automate)
Rating comments in this legacy AppDeploy message board thread won't reorder them,
so that the conversation will remain readable.
 
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site and/or clicking the "Accept" button you are providing consent Quest Software and its affiliates do NOT sell the Personal Data you provide to us either when you register on our websites or when you do business with us. For more information about our Privacy Policy and our data protection efforts, please visit GDPR-HQ