Non-msi Install

[fawkes]

Let me get this straight first.

From what I understand, Developer 8 is an MSI-based install. This means that if MSI engine is not installed on a user's machine, it will be downloaded from the specified MSI Engine URLs (ie http://www.installengine.com/Msiengine20).

How big is the file being downloaded and how long will it take for such a download?

Also, is there anyway around this? Can I make a non-MSI based install on Developer 8?

Thanks

[Peerke]

You don't have to use the download option. You can include the MSI-engine with your setup.

Developer can be used to create MSI-based installs only.

Regards,


Rene

[fawkes]

Which platforms (operating system) comes by default with MSI 2.0?

[johnludlow]

There are two flavours of the MSI engine install. You have instmsia.exe (for Win9x) and instmsiw.exe (for NT-based OS's).

In the release wizard, there are options on how to handle the two engine setups.

[fawkes]

What I was wondering is which of the MS operating systems comes with MSI 2.0.

The reason I ask is because our company wants to avoid downloads of MSI 2.0 if the user has it. What I'm trying to make a case for is how often this actually has to happen.

Thank you. :-)

[johnludlow]

Ah, I see what you mean.

Try Installsite (http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/isnews/200110/default.htm). Scroll down to the bit where it says "Overview of Windows Installer Versions"

[fawkes]

Thank you so much for such quick responses.

I guess my "final" question is:

What's my option? I'm basically installing a 1.5MB total files. Zipped up this is 710KB. I want to install this seemlessly without requiring any download from the user's part. This is a web-based install so the size also matters.


Also, does Developer 8 require MSI 2.0 or any Windows Installer version will do?

[johnludlow]

Well, it's not really my area of expertise, but how do you distribute the web install? Does it install straight from the web, download some files like the IE install, or is it just a single-file exe designed to be downloaded and run on the target?

I think you're gonna have an issue whichever way you do it.

Your options, then.

You could include the exe in the package that's downloaded to the target (in which case the package will have some redundant files in, and that will make it larger).

Or you could get the installer to download it if required, which requires the user to be connected at install-time.

Or you could say that the runtime must be already be on the target computer, but that doesn't really allow your goal of a seamless install. You could supply the runtime as a seperate download, but it's hardly pretty.

There is actually one more option, though I don't know enough to be able to explain how to do this.

If you were able to check the OS and the version of the engine on the target machine, you could work out what version they needed. You could then link to one of several setups, depending on the OS and MSI version.

[Art Middlekauff]

The Release Wizard has an option that lets you specify that you only require MSI 1.2. That way the setup will never try to obtain MSI 2.0.