Microsoft is accepting nominations for the beta program of Windows Installer 4.5. You can apply for it at Microsoft Connect. At the moment there only is a draft of a white paper from Robert Flaming, Windows Installer Program Manager, with the title “Agility Trends in Packaged Software“.

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TrackWinstall is a free tool that informs you about the changes a setup program made to your Windows installation. It shows you what files where added or removed and which files were changed by the setup program. It also lists all Registry changes.

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FLEXnet AdminStudio is a MSI packaging solution from Macrovision (formerly InstallShield). There is a Standard, Professional, and an Enterprise Edition. All three are commercial versions, but the limited SMS Edition is free. I believe it is sponsored by Microsoft, as they offer it on their Web site. However, even if you don’t have Systems Management Server, you can still work with the FLEXnet AdminStudio SMS Edition to create MSI packages. I tried it and was quite content with it.

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MSI (Microsoft Installer) is, meanwhile, the de-facto standard for installing Windows programs. It is advisable to only use this format in order to keep the Windows Installer database of installed products consistent. If your software deployment solution doesn’t allow you to create MSI files, you have to use a third party tool. Usually, these tools are called MSI packagers. Sometimes you’ll also find “MSI repackagers” since they are used to re-create the original installation package. This post lists several MSI packagers.

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