Advantages of MSI Packaging

Following are the advantages over legacy setup


Transaction based operation: All installation operations are transactional. For each operation that Windows Installer performs, it generates an equivalent undo operation that would undo the change made to the system. If a failure occurs during the middle of an installation, Windows Installer can roll back the machine to its original state.


Self-healing: Windows Installer supports "self-healing" abilities for applications. Applications can detect common installation problems at launch, like missing files or registry keys, and automatically repair themselves.


Installation on demand: Windows Installer supports on-demand installations of application features. For example, the spelling checker in Microsoft Office Word may not be installed by default, but a user can trigger an on-demand installation of this feature.


Installation in locked-down environments: In fully locked-down environments, users don't generally have permission or the ability to install applications. In most cases, they don't have write-access to the Program Files folder of their computers or to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry location. If an administrator approves an installation package by means of Group Policy, for instance, Windows Installer can perform an installation on the user's behalf.





Managed Application: Windows Installer provides a set of standard Win32® application programming interfaces (APIs) and automation interfaces for applications and administrators to use for querying the installation state on the machine. The APIs allow querying of the current state, verification of the existing state, repair of a corrupted state, and transition from one state to another.

Advantages of MSI Application Packaging

• Customize Applications to suit the user needs.
• Simplify the Installation and Un-installation Procedures.
• Saves Time in both Installation and Un-installation.
• Once packaged, applications can be quickly installed on a range of desktops in multiple locations, saving administrative costs, simplifying the manage of licensing fees and minimizing support and repair expenditures.
• Saves Space of the product by doing apt modifications to applications.
• Has a great flexibility of obtaining the lost files through a phenomenon called Self Heal, this reduces the down time of application. If a critical file (a .DLL or .EXE file, for example) that is part of the distribution is corrupt or is deleted, the user can be prompted to repair the installation by presenting the original .MSI distribution. Additionally, if the installation media is available (for example, on a network share), the repair simply happens automatically.
• Can be advertised. So that on demand installation could take place.
• Upgrading of the application can be done with ease.
• Clean installation and Un-Installation is achieved by a process called Roll-Back.
• Simplifies management of new user set-up along with the revision and distribution of software repairs and new applications to existing users. Application recovery can also be improved.
• Helps eliminate uncontrolled software downloads and installation, enables applications to be safely removed and reduces non-business traffic on a corporate network.
• Using .MSI format, can automate software distribution process and ensure that the installation doesn't break other applications that have already been installed.
• Application is installed via an OS service.
• State management is maintained. In the past, it's been difficult to know whether an application is installed on a machine. You would have to query for a .DLL with a specific version number or determine whether an .EXE file with a specific name was present. Windows Installer provides an application programming interface (API) that lets programmers and administrators see whether a specific application is installed on a machine.
• Scriptable API. This whips together a VBScript to help us with the MSI file manipulations. The API to manipulate MSI files is so powerful that it can create, validate and update packages, trigger installs and uninstalls, examine the MSI repository data on computers, and perform some custom actions.
• Served installs. Because MSI files can be housed in a share point and delivered via a server, we can keep our installation files all in one place or move them around -- closer to the users if necessary.