Best program to create MSI's. Advanced installer too expensive.

[dany2010]

Hi,

I would like to buy a MSI creater that doesnt just use the scan your machine before and after method.

I've tried AdvancedInstaller and it seems good but the £763 price is huge for our budget and probably not something i could go ahead with.

Is there another good alternative with a lower price tag?

Im looking at creating MSI from simple (copying files) to advanced such as rebuilding exe's.

Many thanks,

Dan

[Ergo]

I believe it is still possible to get a download of WinInstall LE (the free version) if you register. It is quite simple to use once you work out the interfaces although not that intuitive. Does include a Discover process which does the Before/After scans, but you do have to "tidy up" the MSI afterwards to ensure common windows changes are not rolled into the MSI.

Dave

[AngryTechnician]

Advanced Installer has a freeware version, and I rarely need anything more than the feature set you get with that.

[jmak]

Picked up this from one of @FN-GM's posts:

Exe to msi converter

I was looking for an msi to install vlc - 20 mins playing and have a working msi. It doesn't deploy from my GPO yet - not sure why, but the msi ran first time.

[localzuk]

I use a mix of Win Install LE (which has now been changed to some new thing, which I haven't tried yet but is available here - WinInstall LE : Free MSI Package Builder : Scalable.com | Scalable), Advanced Installer (the free version) and Orca.

Never had the need of anything else.

[Arthur]

Is there another good alternative with a lower price tag?

Windows Installer XML (a.k.a. WiX) is completely free and can do everything Advanced Installer does, but has a fairly steep learning curve.

[nickbro]

If you have Visual Studio 2010 you can use it to create simple MSI installers

[rich_tech]

+1 for Advanced Installer Freeware here

[sparkeh]

Advanced Installer has a freeware version, and I rarely need anything more than the feature set you get with that.

Yeah AI Free has done everything I have ever needed, the only annoying thing is that the free version doesn't let you make mixed 32/64 msi so you have to make 2 packages if you have a mixed environment, but its not a huge deal.

[LordNewton]

EMCO Mis Builder used if 100@s of times never let me down

[staningrimsby]

Thanks Guys, I will give advanced installer a go as well, got a teacher that has purchased 72 pieces of sience software and not a single msi on any of them

[nicholab]

I believe that Local update publisher will push out .exe installer as well as MSI patches.

[penfold]

I use a mix of Win Install LE (which has now been changed to some new thing, which I haven't tried yet but is available here - WinInstall LE : Free MSI Package Builder : Scalable.com | Scalable), Advanced Installer (the free version) and Orca.

Never had the need of anything else.

I used to use Win Install LE which I found really useful in the past (and fairly straight forward). I'm now looking at samrt packager but just can't get my head around it. Does it still work the same way (install onto server, share and run from the client?) I just can't get it working and I think it's because I haven't installed it correctly.

I'm obviously being a bit dim, but I can't find a manual for how to install from scratch through to creating the msi.

[dany2010]

Will give emco msi a go.

Have tried the advanced installer free and it's not bad at all, don't like all the extra options that don't work because you havnt got the paid versions. I do like the rest however.


Local update publishers would be good but I struggle to explain the gpo software installations and script installers to everyone. At the minute I have just said I will deal with it to stop people breaking stuff.