The Windows Installer is a new operating system service that was developed by Microsoft to improve the installation and uninstallation of programs, make software deployment in corporate networks easier, and to solve common problems such as shared dll conflicts. The Windows Installer is also a set of rules that developers must follow to take advantage of the service. To use all the features, your application has to be "Windows Installer aware" - so you have to think about installation already when you plan and write your application, not after everything is complete. For example you need to call a special API to enable just-in-time installation of parts of your application. The Windows Installer has formerly been called "Microsoft Installer" (MSI).
If you need to package a MSI setup into a single Self-Installing executable file, or create a MSI bootstrapper (or MSI bootstrap loader), then you can use Paquet Builder.
Paquet Builder has a special MSI plug-in that can configure packages to run MSI setups, optionally check for the presence and download the Windows Installer runtime (redistributable version) if missing, etc... This plug-in is shipped with Paquet Builder.
Start by creating a Package for Setup.
In the "Choose Setup program" panel, select "Install a Windows Installer package (MSI) or patch (MSP)". Then click on "MSI Options" to configure additional options like minimum runtime version, etc...
The MSI plug-in has its own help; please check it for further information.
It is also possible to run several MSI setups back to back or check for prerequisites thanks to custom actions.
Further information about Microsoft Windows Installer is available here:
- Microsoft MSI homepage by Microsoft
- InstallSite.org by Stefan Krueger
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Installer
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