If you want to deploy an application that doesn't have a native Windows Installer package, you'll probably want to either repackage the application or create your own installation program. Several third-party tools exist that permit you to author your own setup program. This section describes how to repackage applications using Seagate Software's WinInstall LE software package, which is included with Windows 2000 Server. Repackaging applications provides the benefits of the Windows Installer, discussed in the section "Choosing an Installation Package Format" earlier in this chapter.
REAL WORLD Best Practices for Installation
You can take a number of precautions to minimize problems with the installation package you are creating. If you follow these recommendations, the applications should deploy properly on a wide range of hardware:
- Always create installation packages on a clean computer—that is, on a computer with no software on it except the operating system and operating system service packs. (The computer on which you create an installation package is known as the reference computer.)
- Don't install the Seagate Software Console on the reference computer. By definition, this makes the system "unclean."
- Don't map any drives on the reference computer.
- Roll the computer back to a clean state after every installation by uninstalling the program and using a program such as Reg.exe to restore a clean registry.
- Consider setting up multiple reference computers so that you can be creating an installation package on one while rolling the other back. These computers don't need to be fast or have much hard disk space, so just about any system can be pressed into service for this role.
- If you have to use an unclean computer as a reference computer, make sure that none of the files installed by the programs you're repackaging are already present on the computer—especially .DLL files.
- Close any antivirus programs, uninstall programs such as CleanSweep, or any other programs that may write data during the repackaging.
- Close all e-mail, word processing, and other programs, and disable any screen saver or other memory-resident programs.
- Don't delete files or drag files to the Recycle Bin during the repackaging process.
The first step in repackaging an application is to take a snapshot of the system state before you install the program. To do this, follow these steps:
Figure 24-12. Specifying the application name and path.
Figure 24-13. Specifying folders and files to exclude from the scan.
NOTE
For the most reliable packaging results, we recommend not altering the exclusions much or at all. Additionally, we recommend that you always select the Enhanced Registry Scan check box.
After you've created the initial system snapshot and installed the program, you're ready to create the "after" snapshot, which will complete the repackaging process. To do so, follow these steps:
To abort the repackaging process, select the Abandon the 'Before' Snapshot And Start Over option. This step will allow you to start over and create a new "before" snapshot.
Figure 24-14. Creating the "after" snapshot.