SMS Installer and Windows 2008

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SMS Installer and Windows 2008

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SMS Installer and Windows 2008 - 3/24/2008 11:45:13 AM

JCD

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Does anyone have any idea if SMS installer will work with Windows 2008.

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RE: SMS Installer and Windows 2008 - 3/24/2008 11:55:29 AM

tmatthews344

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Depends what you mean by "work with".

Will the program itself launch and be usable to create scripts? Yes. Of course installation will still 'require' a site server.

Will the scripts you create run on Windows 2008? Depends on what you are doing. Obviously if your script calls things that aren't there, or are in a different place or if they are a repackaged app that doesn't run on Windows 2008 natively.. then no.

Ask yourself, what does my script currently do? If it installs an app, is everything compatible with Windows 2008? If it does some task are the steps you take in your script still valid?

Anyway, if you have a specific script in mind that you have questions about you can post it or you can describe it in detail and we can see if it still works.

Terry

(in reply to JCD)

Post #: 2

RE: SMS Installer and Windows 2008 - 3/24/2008 12:05:49 PM

JCD

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I don't have any specific script I'm working on yet. My company just started rolling 2008 out a couple of weeks ago but I haven't had to write anything for it yet. I just wanted to know if anyone has gotten it to work with both 32 and 64 bit OS versions. I read something that it can't access the regesitry to install a 64 bit app since sms installer is a 32 bits app.

(in reply to tmatthews344)

Post #: 3

RE: SMS Installer and Windows 2008 - 3/24/2008 12:11:39 PM

tmatthews344

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I don't know does Windows 2008 handle 32 bit installs differently than 2003 did? If not then it will probably work fine?

Can I ask why are you using SMS Installer for installing applications anyway? There are many great tools out there. Plus there are many free options out there too that do work on 64 bit?

Terry

(in reply to JCD)

Post #: 4

RE: SMS Installer and Windows 2008 - 3/24/2008 12:45:11 PM

JCD

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I'm not sure about it being different I haven't had a chance to really play with it yet. The reason I use SMS Installer is because its what I have. I just got this job dumped on me from someone else and its what he used. I have install sheild but I've haven't used it very much so I'm not as comfortable with it. If you know of better tools that work aswell or better than SMS installer please let me know so I can look at them. Thanks.

(in reply to tmatthews344)

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RE: SMS Installer and Windows 2008 - 3/24/2008 12:53:32 PM

tmatthews344

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If you are repackaging applications there is the free edition of InstallShield which works fine. You will have to learn it.

WISE is also a good one but costs money.

If you are just creating simple scripts or doing some automation AutoIt is very good.

Terry

(in reply to JCD)

Post #: 6

RE: SMS Installer and Windows 2008 - 3/24/2008 1:05:14 PM

JCD

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I do both repacking and automation. As for simple scripts I usually use Powershell. I'll have to take a look at those. Thanks for your help.

(in reply to tmatthews344)

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RE: SMS Installer and Windows 2008 - 8/13/2008 7:01:50 AM 1 votes

ChrisR

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Personally I've always used SMS installer for app deployment.

It's easy, it's free, it does everything I've ever needed. If I need to create a transform for anything I'll break out Orca.

I've used all the other installer software packages and find they just over complicate things unecessarily, having packaged up many many apps this way I've never really had a problem.

Also apart from some very basic apps I never do a before/after capture install, I find them messy and 9.9 times out of 10 I don't see the point in junking the provided installation files. Never had a real problem doing it this way, a package can be knocked out in minutes using some template IPF files I've created for various installers (i.e. have a tempalte for msis, installshield 'setup.exe' etc) and don't think there's anything I've not been able to fully automate and make silent.

The only time I can see you wanting to do captures and junk the manufacturers installer is if it's woefully bad in the first place (I'm yet to find something this bad but I'm sure they are out there!) or you/your company are extremely anal about what goes on and off the machines and are unable to manage it any other way.

< Message edited by ChrisR -- 8/13/2008 7:07:22 AM >

(in reply to JCD)

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RE: SMS Installer and Windows 2008 - 8/13/2008 1:36:45 PM

tmatthews344

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Chris, the reason you 'junk' the manufacturers install files is to create something specific for your environment. Many times when you do an install manufacturers have not specified ways (transforms, setup installation files, command lines, etc...) to help you truely customize it the way you need to for your environment by caputring your own and then editing registry settings, adding files to it, capturning ini changes or other files that are changed you can add in all those customizations so that you can deploy the app in your environment without having to do any type of secondary customization.

(in reply to ChrisR)

Post #: 9

RE: SMS Installer and Windows 2008 - 8/18/2008 6:42:20 AM

ChrisR

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quote:

ORIGINAL: tmatthews344

Chris, the reason you 'junk' the manufacturers install files is to create something specific for your environment. Many times when you do an install manufacturers have not specified ways (transforms, setup installation files, command lines, etc...) to help you truely customize it the way you need to for your environment by caputring your own and then editing registry settings, adding files to it, capturning ini changes or other files that are changed you can add in all those customizations so that you can deploy the app in your environment without having to do any type of secondary customization.

Even then, I don't junk the manufacturers install, I just make any customisations after the main installer has run within my script.

I see what you mean, I guess if I wasn't using SMS installer I'd have to do that if I did have an app that I really couldn't do anything with.

I guess it's more accurate to say I use SMS installer as a wrapper, I still run the msi or whatever with the appropriate cmd lines/transforms etc, just that the SMS installer script does extra things I want it to before and after this has run. It's also great for running more than one uninstaller or installer in one go.

Horses for courses, all gets to the same place in the end :)

< Message edited by ChrisR -- 8/18/2008 8:21:35 AM >

(in reply to tmatthews344)

Post #: 10