A. The problem at the moment is that not many applications ship with MSI files and so deploying legacy applications via group policies is not possible. Windows 2000 ships with WinINSTALL LE which can be used in the same way as SYSDIFF. You take a snapshot of you system, install the application, take an after snapshot and a discover program runs extracting the different files and registry entries that have been made.
Its important to run WinINSTALL LE on a clean system, by this I mean don’t run it on an installation that has applications installed on as when you install an application it may check if certain runtime’s etc are installed and if so not bother to recopy over, this would mean your distribution package would be missing vital files if applications were already installed.
To install WinINSTALL LE perform the following, however its recommended NOT to install the application on the PC that's going to act as the package creation computer incase the program itself effects the installation of the applications:
- Insert the Windows 2000 Server CD
- Move to the VALUADD\3RDPARTY\MGMT\WINSTLE folder
- Double click the SWIADMLE.MSI file
- The installer will begin and a progress bar displayed showing the progress of the installation.
A folder will be created under the Start menus Program folder 'Seagate Software'.
The first stage is to take a snapshot of the blank Windows 2000 Professional installation so any changes made by the application installation will be detected.
- Logon to the professional reference installation as an Administrator
- Run the Discover wizard from the distribution server (do not map a drive,
use the Run dialog or Network Neighborhood), for example
"\\titanic.savilltech.com\d$\Program Files\Seagate Software\Winstall\DiscoZ.exe" - The wizard will start, click Next
- Enter a name for the package (the name of the software you are creating a
package for) and a path for the .msi file (make sure its on a drive other
than one that forms part of the package, and select a new empty directory)
and click Next
Click here to view image - Select a drive for the temporary files and click Next
- Select the drives that the discover program should scan and click Next
- Select the files to exclude from the scan (leave as the default unless you
know what you're doing). Click Next
- The WinINSTALL Discover program will then start
- Once complete it will ask you to click OK which will prompt for a setup program to run, this is the legacy application which you want to create an .MSI file for.
- Select the setup program you want to run and click Open
- Continue the application setup as per normal
Once you have installed the application and made and configuration changes you need to create the "after" snapshot:
- Logon to the professional reference installation as an Administrator again
- Run the Discover wizard from the distribution server (again, do not map a
drive, use the Run dialog or Network Neighborhood), for example
"\\titanic.savilltech.com\d$\Program Files\Seagate Software\Winstall\DiscoZ.exe" - The wizard will detect that a before snapshot exists and will ask if you
want to create the after snapshot. Leave the 'Perform after' and click Next
- The check will begin on both the registry and file system
- If there are any potential problems they will be displayed. Click OK
- A notice saying the after snapshot is complete and the package created
Before running any other package creations remove the application you installed or better yet, reinstall the machine (RIS is useful for this).
Its possible to fine-tune your created package using the 'Seagate Software Console' MMC snap-in. Select Open from the File menu and you can then change and view the files and registry components that will change be changed if installed. Select Save after any changes.
The Seagate console that allows you to edit the MSI files.
Once you have finished you must not only place the .MSI file to the distribution server but all files and subdirectories in the directory chosen for the MSI file.
