Software Deployment

Wise for Windows Installer, or Wise Package Studio is probably the best way to go for you, for a few reasons. Since SMS packaging is actually an OEM'd version of Wise, the structure is very much the same and there'll be a lot less to learn. Secondly, Wise allows you to grant privileges to registry entries and folder and file objects easily. Don't think it can help you on the GPO settings, but if you can do it from a command line tool, you can embed that in a custom action within the package. Wise Package Studio will allow you to build either an EXE or a Windows Installer package, whichever your preference.

InstallShield allows you to do similar functions, and I have used both, but I find Wise is more powerful, does a better job of capturing installations, and a heck of a lot easier to use. Installshield is a more raw product, IMHO.

Good luck

Mark Weston

I agree with markweston's recommendation of Wise. I also agree with everything else he said with one exception: You mentioned wanting/needing to be able to set file, folder, and registry permissions. As good as Wise is (I use WPS 5.1), I have given up on using it directly to do this kind of customization. The functionality is there, but I find the process awkward. There is also a weakness in setting them in this way.

What many do to accomplish this is add a Custom Action that runs just before InstallFinalize. There is a huge advantage to doing it this way. If you are building an application with Wise, you can, obviously, control the sequence of everything. If you are repackaging an app into .msi, that is very difficult to control. By setting permissions via a Custom Action that is nearly the last thing to run during install, you are assured that nothing else happens afterwards that alters what you wanted.

There are several ways to do this, but an excellent tutorial on the concept can be found here:

http://www.ewall.org/ContentExpress-display-ceid-29.html



Craig --<>.