I have several .msi's, how do I edit?

[Mike]

I asked a while back how to create .MSI's.

For those .MSI's I have, how do I edit them?

I think for creation of MSI's and editing MSI packages of
third party apps, I need Install Shield?

Are there other cheaper alternatives? Seems like such a
simple thing (selecting a few install options and
resaving).

Thanks

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

Mike,

I am not so sure that this is the correct News Group for a question like
this. You might try the developers ng.

Anyway, I know of the free WinInstall Lite that is on the WIN2000 Server CD.
I am not sure that it will allow you to change the .msi file. You pretty
much have to install WIN2000 Professional on a system ( a nice clean
install ), take the 'before' picture, install the application(s) that you
want ( such as Adobe Reader and WinZip and whatever ), then take the 'after'
picture and the software creates the .msi for you....

Not sure that this answers your question.

Cary

 

[Mike]

Thanks Cary. I think I should have clarified a bit more -
I posted it in here, as my main goal is how to push these
things down via AD in an enterprise environment. So, not
much to do with the sysdiff kind of install.

I want to be able to take a vendor's app, modify the .msi
to include the application installation settings, assign
or publish it via AD, so it pushes down to the users with
little to no intervention.

Thanks!

Mike

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

Got it!

I think that there is - at least with the Microsoft applications - the much
beloved transforms files ( aka .mst files ). What other applications do you
mean? What types of modifications? Have you looked at their websites or
news groups or contacted the technical support?

HTH,

Cary

 

[Mike]

I have found that InstallShield X Pro does what I need,
and have been using the demo. I can edit any .msi file,
make a .mst to apply against it, add files to it, etc.
etc. Then resave it. It works great, but is about
$1399, and largely overkill for what I need - but we'll
probably buy a copy or two since it seems to work so well.

Mike

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

Mike,

Thank you for the update. I guess that you can justify this expenditure to
the Suits by showing them how much of your time that this will save. Take
my time of 10 minutes per computer and multiply that by x number of
computers. Then show them about the productivity of the users. Take all
that time that you are going to save from having to sit at their
computer....

$1400 is a lot of money but if it makes your life so much easier then it is
most probably worth it!

Cary


PS...do you have a link? I would like to take a look at it.