Making MSI's from a normal Setup program (for free!?)

[crc-ict]

Hi all,

 

Just a quick question, can anyone recommend any good programs for creating MSI installer packages from the original Setup programs, preferably which are free?

 

I have an idea for deploying software using MSIs not using AD or group policies (more on this later if it works...) and need a free way of making MSIs so I can pilot the idea.

 

This will also save me a considerable amount of hassle and nagging at one of my schools, who want to be able to deploy software, but not have the other trappings of AD/GP.

 

Thanks for your time,

 

Chris.

[Geoff]

http://www.appdeploy.com/downloads/detail.asp?id=415

[Guest Guest]

Im new to the whole MSI thing so i know how confusing it can be.

 

The above suggestion works by just "wrapping" the exe up in an msi by adding switches to the end for example

 

Gimp.exe will be wrapped up by the line:- gimp.exe /silent

All you then do is put the exe and msi in the same dir and deploy.

 

Appdeploy tells you the switches for most of the popular apps.

[crc-ict]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I was really looking for something which actually takes a 'snapshot' before and after the install, then makes a silent MSI of the changes.

 

I have been trying Discover from WinInstall LE from a Windows Server 2000 disk, but this is failing at the stage of converting the NAI file (which it seems to use internally) to the MSI file. I am running it on one of the XP workstations I want to deploy the MSIs to.

 

WinInstall would be perfect, if only it worked properly! I get an error stating the source file must begin @SourceDir: ...

 

Any more suggestions would be very gratefully received

 

Chris.