Software Deployment

Better yet, has anyone been able to successfully create an MSI install of Visual Studio 6 Pro? VB6 is easy but VS in another matter....

Hi,

Lauch the setup
When it ask you for the path write your path for exemple C:\tools\Microsoft Visual Studio

click on next and cancel the installation.
Go with regedit [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\6.0\Setup]

you have to see this key: "VsCommonDir"="C:\\yourpath\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\Common"
Save this key in a reg. (if its doesn't work save [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio])
In your batch:
regedit.exe /s yourreg.reg
smsinst.exe /k 0124567890

the only way I have managed to create an msi of visual studio is by capturing the silent install - seems to work fine ...

I have a full working version of Visual Studio v6.0 Enterprise with Java C++ and SP5 + SP6 all in one on a Win2K Pro.

Steps I took with installation from the CD's (or CD's on network):

- Before you install, you must make sure the pre-reqs for Visual Studio are already installed, such is MDAC v2.8 (or latest version if one by then) and Microsoft Java Virtual Machine. I made packages for these also, but they need to be installed prior to Visual Studio or it will demand to install and reboot and you don't want that.

- Get this neat little software called InstallRite from Epsilon Squared. It's freeeeeee. (www.epsilonsquared.com)

- Install it on your target computer for the installation and run it for the "before" snapshot"

- Install everything you want for Visual Studio 6.0.
- The installation will want to reboot, say no. It will then prompt you a box giving you no choice (yeah right!), don't click on the X or OK or it WILL reboot. Simply go into the task manager and kill either the SETUP.EXE or the VS_????.exe (I forget the name, but it will stand out in the task list). The box will vanish, you can then run either the Service Packs and/or the J++ installations.

- Once all is installed, run the "after" snapshot of InstallRite.
- Go into the InstallRite software, and Review the installation.
- You must remove some RunOnce commands in the registry so it won't pop-up the MSDN installation (you can make a package for that too!). Enter the Registry, Added Registry, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, scroll til you find the RunOnce lines and delete the line that calls a file from DISC 4 CD (or your original path location). I unfortunatly forgot to write it down, but it should be easily identifiable (long line and you can see the path like '\\server\share\vstudio\disc4' or 'D:\Disc4' .. bascially, it points to your original installation media. This line will prevent the MSDN Installation box to pop up.
- Build the KIT (it will make one large .EXE file
- Use a wrapper like WIWW (see on this site for links), create an MSI package that lanches the .EXE
- Add it to your Software Deployement scheme (GPOs).

I suggest you make the system reboot after installation, but it will still run if you don't.

I hope this was clear enough.


Extra notes: I had an error on an ODBC registration the first time. Since I already installed the latest version, I removed that command line also from RunOnce when it tries to register it. This may or may not happen in other installations.

Are you including the MJVM in the package?

MDAC v2.8, MS Virutal Machine and Sun Java 2 RunTime v1.4.2 are already installed via other packages.

I had originally launched my GPO with MDAC, MSVM and then Visual Studio, but I decided to install the MDAC and MSVM company wide instead.

To install that app, I created a batch file, which is launched by a MSI created by the great WiWW

The batch does:

Install Visual C++
Install MDAC 2.8
Install SP6 for VC++

I used 3 dos tools (copied by an other MSI to %windir%\system32) which can be found easily on google:
Sleep.exe (Timer)
Pulist.exe (Current task/process listing)
Grep.exe (Output selection, Windows version of that excellent Unix tool)

Batch file:

@echo off
TITLE Installing Visual C++ 6.0 with SP6
net use x: /d
net use x: \\appserver\app\MSI\VisualC60
sleep 1
echo Installing Visual C++ 6.0...
regedit /s key.dat
start x:\smsinst.exe /k A-GOOD-SERIAL-NUMBER-:)
sleep 10
:Loop
cls
echo Installing Visual C++ 6.0
sleep 4
pulist | grep ACMSETUP > %temp%\result.txt
find /C " " %temp%\result.txt
IF "%ERRORLEVEL%" == "0" goto Loop
IF "%ERRORLEVEL%" == "1" goto Empty
:Empty
cls
echo Installing MDAC 2.8...
start /wait x:\MDAC28\MDAC28.exe /q /c:"setup /qn1"
cls
echo Installing ServicePack 6 for Visual C++...
start /wait x:\SP6\setupsp6.exe /qn1
echo.
echo Process completed.
sleep 4
net use x: /d

Hi all,

I have also tried to pack the vs6 ent edition and the msi works fine.But after installation i am unable to edit this msi or for that matter any msi, since the application starts to reinitialize.Also uninstallation of the msi has certain problems like,

1.Removes the user groups from the system(ie., not able to click on users or groups to add or modify).

2.Also it tries to remove the display card from the system ie., system reboots to get into safe mode.

3. None of the microsoft office applications work after that as they start initializing in a indefinite loop.

Any suggestions is greatly awaited!!

Well, the only thing I see is that the pack you don't really work... I had of these problems sometimes... Removing too much stuff while cleaning the MSI, or not enough... Just make one again to see if the results changes.

If not... well... post again, and we'll beging thinking harder!