ServersWhat's New with SMS Installer

What’s New with SMS Installer

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by Dana Daugherty

This
article provides an overview of the new features in the newest
release of SMS Installer (version 2.0.148)

Dana Daugherty’s latest article
provides an overview of the new features in the most recent
release of SMS Installer, version 2.0.148. The major addition in
this version is integration with Windows Installer, with built-in
tools for compiling new scripts and converting old ones into the
Windows Installer format.

Version 2.0.148 provides integration with Windows
Installer. There are tools provided to compile new scripts
into the Windows Installer format and tools provided to
convert old scripts and program executables to the Windows
Installer format.

SMS Installer Interface

The new interface includes the option to compile as a
Windows Installer package. This provides the .msi file. It can
be run using the standard Windows Installer syntax: MSIEXEC
/option package.msi /option

Installer Step-up Utility (ISU)

ISU is a command-line utility that will convert SMS
Installer packages into Windows Installer format. It is
located in the Microsoft SMS Installer program group.
Syntax can be found using this command: ISU /?

Purpose of Conversion

What’s the purpose in compiling or converting scripts to
the Windows Installer format? Windows Installer is an
installation service that contains the following parts:

    An
installation service that resides on the operating system

    A standard
format for defining the state of an installed application

    A
management API for applications and tools

If you haven’t noticed, nearly all applications now use the
Windows Installer for setting up the application. Previously,
each setup program used its own setup rules. A system could
have a hundred or more programs installed in its lifetime.
Each of these programs would have been installed or
uninstalled based on its own rulers. New programs could break
existing ones, and uninstalling programs could leave multiple
files behind. As you can imagine this can quickly turn into a
real mess. It only makes sense for SMS Installer to join the
“team”. 

Why continue to use SMS Installer? SMS installer provides
many flexible programming features to SMS admins that aren’t
readily available and at no additional cost. It’s a good tool
and provides some integration with SMS.

Helpful Links

Download SMS Installer
v2.0.148

http://www.microsoft.com/smsmgmt/downloads/installer.asp

Deploying Windows Installer Files using SMS
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/sms/deploy/depovg/deplymsi.asp?frame=true

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