Software Deployment

Wise Setup Capture is for legacy SETUP.EXE installs (or for apps that don't have an install utility) that do not use Windows Installer technology. You do need to be careful that it's not an InstallShield MSI that uses InstallShield Script and a SETUP.EXE bootstrap, it's not always obvious.

Rules of thumb:

If the install is just an MSI file, do not use Setup Capture. Use Wise Install Tailor.

If the setup files contain a SETUP.EXE and MSI file(s), avoid using Setup Capture. First, try to install the app by launching the MSI. If it installs, use Wise Install Tailor. If it generates an error, look for documentation on this site for dealing with SETUP.EXE that calls an MSI file. (these apps can be a PIA)

If it's a single SETUP.EXE (or [Appname].exe) and that's it, look for self extracting files. Open the SETUP.EXE with WinZip and see if it contains compressed files. You can also launch the setup.exe and look for new files/folders in your TEMP directory that contain extracted setup files. From there, look for SETUP.EXE and/or MSI files and follow the rules above.

If it contains only a SETUP.EXE and no MSI files, then use Wise Setup Capture.

If the install doesn't have a SETUP.EXE or MSI, consisting of copying particular files in particular places, etc, then use Wise Setup Capture.

That would have helped me so much about 2 years ago. I've learned all of that the long and hard way. This should be mandatory for all new packagers to read.

Great summary Viking. I too had to learn all this the hard way; but if you change the Wise terminology to Installshield you just quoted our packaging standards.

Hehehe.. Same here.

Additional tips:

Use a tool called PEiD to detect the software that created the setup.exe. It has a lot of use. If it's an InstallShield exe, try extracting it because it might contain an msi inside. However, some setup.exe's can't be extracted (Im using WinRAR). You can run the setup.exe but don't install it, then go to %temp% folder to get the msi. If it's an Inno Setup package, you can capture the installation, or you can decompile the installer using a tool called InnoUnp (Inno Unpacker). I prefer decompiling Inno Setup installers.

As for the setup.exe /r, do you mean installing in record mode? Only InstallShield InstallScript projects support that.

That tool sounds useful, is it freeware? Where is it?

Nice summary Viking :)

Yes they are both free softwares. [:)]

PEiD -- http://peid.tk/
Innu Unpacker -- http://innounp.sourceforge.net/

With the advent of the Windows Installer Service and Merge Modules, one should in almost NO CIRCUMSTANCES use the Wise SetupCapture method for packaging anything.

In the "good old days" we had no choice, but for almost every major installation setup.exe out there (if it was created with InstallShield, Wise, InnoSetup, etc.) then there is a way to automate the installation.

The thing you want top avoid, and the reality of using SetupCapture is that, whoever packages an app that way has 100% responsibility for the application even post-deployment.

Since you're possibly shortcutting any logic of dynamic decisions made my the setup.exe, including the placement of DLLs, registry keys, etc., if something goes wrong with the app when its running, you cannot be 100% sure that the repakaging of it isn't the problem.

I would even go so far as to say that, for migrations, if your clients have an installation so old that it absolutely cannot be automated, then it should be installed as a legacy app in a Citrix system (so that users can still use it) but so that it does not need to be actually deployed to any machines.

Utter nonsense. If you're happy to let a vendor install walk all over your builds without knowing what it is doing, you deserve everything you get. And what piffle about placing of registry keys and so on. Do you think SUC decides on a whim where to put stuff? Or does it, do you think, CAPTURE what the EXE does? Hmmm...tricky one...

In any event, one would have to question the quality of advice from someone who replies to 5-year old posts.

Wow! He just dug up this thread out of the clear blue sky to tell us that SetupCapture is plain wrong? Kudos for that.

That's insane. I may as well hang up the packaging boots if there's no need to do captures anymore!

Granted though the majority of vendor packages these days are msi's. Some extremely poorly written and some not so bad[;)]

Wow, thread revival! Preach it brothas! LOL...

I agree it's wrong to say NEVER setup capture. But if you can (I've done this) it's much more effective and less chance of "cruft" if you just get the raw files and add them to a wsi, then compile. Wise picks up the advertising and com info automagically, and prompts for merge modules if needed.

peid cool app .

there is a tool called setup capture? sigh....

really? where did you get that? [:-]