Whats new in Installshield 2012

Introducing InstallShield 2012 - used by over 70,000 software producers on more than 500 million desktops, InstallShield 2012 is the only installation solution capable of supporting the needs of today’s sophisticated software producers for packaging both standalone offerings and complex suites. InstallShield 2012, has been updated for a new generation of app-savvy users, delivering a fresh, positive and friendly experience to the exacting standards of today’s sophisticated users. And – it’s the only solution providing automated tools that empower software producers to productize, package and install their products in both traditional MSI and virtual formats. Understanding the needs of today’s decentralized agile teams, means that Flexera Software can design a world-class installation solution that supports the installation authoring, building and bundling requirements of these teams.


Register for this “What’s New with InstallShield 2012” Webinar and learn more about our new features including:

• Suite Installations: With the new InstallShield Suite Project type, multiple products can be easily bundled together into a single, unified suite installation eliminating the need to develop a complex custom launcher or bootstrapper application. This new functionality offers advantages over MSI chaining, InstallShield prerequisite support, and the user interface functionality that is provided by Windows Installer.


• Installation Streaming: Installation Streaming reduces the downloading wait time required before installation can begin. End users need only download a small file to quickly start the installation giving a more immediate interaction with the product installation. Based on the selected install options, only the required packages are downloaded from the web or extracted from the installation, reducing the overall time it takes to install the application and providing an “app store-like” experience for the user.


• Installation Collaboration: The InstallShield 2012 Collaboration add-on has been significantly enhanced to better support distributed, collaborative installation development allowing product developers and technical writers to more efficiently create and manage their portion of the installation.


• 64-Bit Enhancements: Comprehensive support for 64-bit installation development including updated dependency scanners to identify 64-bit dependencies of the 64-bit files in a project; support for setting permissions for files, folders and registry keys in 64-bit locations; and a prerequisite that installs the 64-bit version of the Microsoft VSTO 2010 Runtime.


• Application Tagging: InstallShield 2012 is the only strategic installation development solution that creates ISO 19770-2 software identification tags as part of the installation development process. This enables software producers to help their customers by delivering better visibility into their installed software estate in order to facilitate software compliance efforts.

What is Application Packaging

Application Packaging is all about customizing applications according to best practices and User requirements.

Application packaging can help enterprises manage growing volumes of software for desktop and server systems efficiently. By streamlining software
configuration and deployment, application packaging can help reduce application management costs.

MDOP 2011 R2

MDOP 2011 R2 is available and can be downloaded from theMicrosoft Volume Licensing website, MSDN and TechNet. This version of MDOP includes Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) which is brand new to MDOP, and updates to the Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) 7.0, and Microsoft Asset Inventory Service 2.0.

Difference between Run, Run Once, Active Setup

Active Setup:



It is used when your application requires installation of components such as files or registry keys on a per-user basis, but application has no advertised entry points or other triggers to initiate the installation process.


Run:



The Run key is processed after every logon, either by the Explorer shell, if it is present, or by First Boot Agent (FBA), if a custom shell, Command shell, or Task Manager Shell is used. If FBA processes this key, it does so after every logon, not during first boot as it normally would. Typically, this flag is used to load Systray applications, launch services in executables, hide autostart applications, or hide background processes


Run Once:



The RunOnce key is processed only once, by FBA, after Plug and Play device enumeration and DLL registration processing have completed. The values of this registry key are deleted from the registry after it is processed, so that it will not run again. Typically, this flag is used when a reboot is required, such as for a DLL or OCX registration, or for cleaning up a setup or an uninstall.

AdminStudio Installshield Online Training Training

New batch of Application Packaging Classroom training using Installshield/Wise Packaging Studio is starting at Hyderabad on3rd September. If you are interested contact me at 91-9963678795 or Virtual.App.Packager@gmail.com


For training details please visit www.AppRepack.in

Application Packaging Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quY_a7Ye_WQ

What is Active Setup

Active setup provides a solution when the aim is to deliver user based components when no advertised entry points exist in an MSI package.


Most packages will contain some kind on entry point; commonly an advertised shortcut. When launching this kind of shortcut Windows Installer will check the keypath of the component the shortcut belongs to and verifies that the component is installed. If it is found to be missing Windows Install will kick off a repair.


This provides a great solution for installing current user data when the package is not installed in the user context. It is also a very good reason why you should never mix machine and user data in the same feature.

On logon the following registry keys are compared:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\<UID> HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\<UID>

<UID> has to unique; it is good practise to use a GUID. If the HKCU key is not found the contents of the string value StubPath is executed. The HKLM key is then copied to HKCU. The executable in StubPath can be anything (a VBS script, a regsvr32.exe call, etc), but our aim, in this example, is to deliver missing current user data from a previously installed MSI. To do this we need to force the package to repair so Msiexec.exe will be used: Msiexec.exe /fpu /qn /f - Repair /p - only if file is missing /u - all required user-specific registry entriesIf you choose to, the entire installation can be repaired: Msiexec.exe /fomus /qn

[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{44CCA842-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015B}] "Version"="1" "StubPath"="Msiexec.exe /fpu {44CCA842-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015B}"

Where a version is included; StubPath will only execute if the version of HKCU is less than the version of HKLM. When a new user logs on Windows will find the HKCU active setup key missing, run Msiexec.exe with the repair arguments from StubPath and copy the HKLM key to HKCU. Next time this user logs in the repair won't run as the key already exists in HKCU.