Build the Installation Program Immediately

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Begin developing the installation program immediately after you start developing your project. The installation program is the first part of your product that your users see. Too many products give a poor first impression, showing that the installation program was left to the last minute. By getting the installation program started as early as possible, you have sufficient time to test and debug it. If the installation program is done early, you can also incorporate it into your smoke test. This way, you're always testing it and your tests will be one step closer to simulating how the users will be running your program.

Earlier in the chapter, I recommended that you should build both release and debug versions of your product. You also need to have an installation program that allows you to install either version. All modern COM software now requires so much stuff in the registry that it's almost impossible to properly use an application without running its installation program. By having a debug build installation program, it becomes trivial for developers to get a debug version on a machine so that they can quickly start debugging a problem. To ensure that no overlap problems between installing debug and release versions occur, you should probably have different registry keys for both your debug and release products.

One extra benefit of having the installation program done as early as possible is that others in your company can start testing your program that much sooner. With the installation program done, the technical support engineers can start using your program and providing you with feedback—early enough in the cycle so that you can actually do something about the problems they find.