You can launch the Windows Installer Clean Up tool by typing “clean” in the Start Search prompt. Don’t confuse it with Disk Cleanup, the Windows tool to gain disk space.

A crashed installer program isn’t the only reason why Windows Installer information can become damaged. The Windows registry can become corrupted or files in the Windows installer folder (C:\Windows\installer) can be inadvertently deleted. In these cases, uninstalling a program might fail.

By the way, you should not remove files from this folder manually, even though it can occupy a considerable amount of space on your computer. Some programs need the files there to work properly, for example, for updating or uninstalling an application.

However, you can remove orphaned patches from the folder with the msizap tool, which you will find in the Windows Installer Clean Up folder. The command “msizap.exe G!” removes superfluous data from the Windows installer folder.

If you desperately need file space on a system drive (and the Windows Disk clean Up tool didn’t help), then you can also move the contents of the Windows installer to another place. You can copy the folder back later, if you have to uninstall programs. Just remember that some programs might not like this procedure. Check out this article for more information.

Windows Installer Clean Up tool

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The title already lets you know that you won’t find much concrete information about Windows Installer 4.5 in this text. It is somehow a mixture of a marketing text and an abstract historical analysis of installer technology. I must admit, I didn’t understand much of it even though I have a general idea of how Windows Installer works. I guess, one has to be an installer expert and/or a product manager to understand this.

Stefan Krueger from the InstallSite blog understood a bit more, it seems. One central new feature of Windows Installer 4.5 is that it improves the splitting of software suites into multiple MSI packages supporting install and rollback transactions. There are also improvements in patch management when it comes to uninstalling patches of components which are shared across multiple products.

Most important from a system administrator’s point of view is that Windows Installer 4.5 will not only support Vista, but will also be available for Windows XP SP2. If you have Vista and XP in your network, you have to live with two different installer versions, Windows Installer 3.1 in XP and Windows Installer 4.0 in Vista.

Stefan Krueger also reports that Vista SP1 will come with Windows Installer 4.1. We probably won’t see this service pack within this year. Therefore, it will certainly take quite some time until Windows Installer 4.5 will be released.

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TrackWinstall uses the differential method, i.e. it compares the system states before and after the installation. However, it doesn’t create an MSI installation package. You’ll get an activity protocol instead. This is can be useful if there are conflicts between applications or if you want your packager to create a usable setup file.

The programmer’s description on the homepage is in German. Google’s translation is a bit strange, but understandable. If you start TrackWinstall on an English Windows, it opens with an English-user interface. The help file is in English, too. The tool doesn’t have to be installed; it is a stand-alone-program.

TrackWinstall supports Windows 2000 and XP. I tried it on Vista and it seems to work there, too. There is a version with a graphical user interface and a command line tool.

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The downloadable setup file from Macrovision installs the Professional Edition. If you activate it, the extra features of the Professional Edition will be disabled. You can try these additional tools for 30 days. Please check out this comparison table if you want to know more about them.

The SMS edition only contains the Repackager, the Distribution Wizard, and the Tuner. The Repackager is the most important tool. You can use it to create MSI packages. There are two ways to do this.

You can repackage legacy packet formats. FLEXnet AdminStudio supports the formats of InstallShield, WinINSTALL, ZENworks, SMS, and Wise. The other way is to create a MSI package by capturing the setup process of the program you want to deploy.

FLEXnet AdminStudio offers two options here. You can let the Repackager monitor the setup process or you can let it compare the states of the computer before and after the installation. The latter is known as the “differential method” or “snapshot method“.

Monitoring the setup process is the preferred method as it is more reliable and usually needs less time for repackaging. The Repackager will intercept the setup program and log all changes made to your master PC. It will capture registry changes and files copied to the system. It is also possible to log the deletion of files and registry changes.

When the setup routine is finished, the Repackager creates a package in its own format. The limited SMS edition of FLEXnet AdminStudio allows you to exclude files and registry entries, but you can’t edit them. For this, you need one of the commercial editions. When you are done with creating the package, you can build the MSI file with the Repackager.

With the Distribution Wizard, you distribute a package as an administrative installation, to a network location, or to a FTP server. The Distribution Wizard also allows creating MFI files for SMS 1.2 and SMS 2.0.

If you work with SMS 2003 or any other software deployment solution, you probably don’t need the Distribution Wizard. You can just import the MSI file instead. In SMS 2003 you right click on “Packages,” chose “New,” and then “Package from Definition.” The wizard will lead you through the MSI import.

In my test I deployed a MSI file containing a setup for Firefox. I created it using the monitoring method of the Repackager. As usual with MSI packages, you can run attended and unattended setups, per user or per system. You can also uninstall the software using the same package. I had no problems during my tests.

The SMS Edition also includes the Tuner tool, which enables you to create MST files. You can use them to add additional files and registry entries to your package.

Overall, FLEXnet AdminStudio SMS Edition made a very good impression on me. I was able to use it immediately without reading the documentation. If you only want to create MSI files, the limited edition is sufficient. You can use the MSI packages with SMS or with any other software deployment solution. Of course, it is also possible to work with Group Policy to deploy them.

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Windows Installer is an application installation and configuration tool which was first introduced with Windows 2000. You can find msiexec.exe under C:\windows\system32. The latest version for Windows XP is Windows Installer 3.1 v2. Windows Vista will be delivered with Windows Installer 4.0. Windows Installer uses MSI packages, which are databases containing all information that is necessary to install an application.

Nowadays, many software vendors deliver their applications as MSI packages. Usually, you can recognize them by the MSI extension. Sometimes, the setup program is an EXE file which contains the compressed MSI file. Most software deployment solutions support MSI meanwhile.

Some still have their own packing format as an additional option, though. Even Microsoft’s Systems Management Server 2003 was originally delivered with its own packaging format. There is a free MSI packager for SMS 2003 now, which is a limited edition of FLExnet Adminstudio.

The list here contains all MSI packagers, I found, so far. Please let me know if you know of another tool. I’ll add it then.

• EMCO: MSI Package Builder
• Macrovision: FLEXnet Adminstudio (formerly Installshield)
• Altiris: Wise Package Studio
• Attachmate: WinINSTALL MSI Packager Professional (formerly Ondemand WinINSTALL)
• Caphyon: Advanced Installer (freeware and professional version)
• Capasystems: CapaInstaller ezMSI
• New Boundary: Prism Pack
• MAKEMSI (freeware)
• MSIBuilder (freware)
• AInstaller (freware)
• ScriptLogic: Desktop Authority MSI Studio

Update: I just found this site which lists many more MSI packagers with a short description for each.

• MDT Workbench and Windows deployment (0)
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