At most companies, it's rare to install a commercial software package with all the standard defaults. More likely, you're changing default file locations, options and adding company-specific information such as help desk phone numbers. Microsoft delivered the Microsoft System Installer (MSI) with the introduction of Windows 2000 as an integral part of the operating system. MSI-based installation packages include benefits such as install-on-demand, a self-healing capability and administrator-defined installation transforms (MST files).

Modifying an installation package prior to the introduction of the MSI used a "before" and "after" snapshot technique. An installer tool would take a snapshot of a computer's file directories and registry before a new application was installed. Then it would install the product and take a final snapshot for comparison purposes. Finally, the installer tool would build a new installation package based on the differences. Most install tool vendors still offer products that use this approach for non-MSI based installations.

Customization with the new Microsoft Installer uses a transform or MST file. This method makes it much easier to tailor an installation to meet specific needs. For example, Microsoft provides a customization wizard with Office 2000 that creates a MST file to help tailor that process. While it doesn't offer all of the functionality of a third-party tool, it does get the job done. However, for most other software packages based on MSI technology, you'll need extra help.

That's where InstallShield Tuner and Wise for Windows Installer come in. Both products offer a range of features and options to help create a custom installation. InstallShield Tuner is specifically targeted at modifying MSI installations by creating a MST file. InstallShield Tuner does all its work on the MSI (it creates a MST file from the baseline MSI) file without actually running the installation program. Wise for Windows Installer will execute the installation process to capture user responses. While the two products take a slightly different approach to the task, the end product is a MST file containing the necessary information to perform a custom installation.

We tested each product to measure the difficulty of creating an installation package by attempting to create a distribution package from Microsoft Office 2000 that contained Word and Excel only. Once we created the package, we attempted to install it on a network client station that had a fresh copy of Windows 2000 Professional on it.

InstallShield Tuner

InstallShield Software has a long-standing relationship with Microsoft, particularly in the software development tools arena. Microsoft Visual Studio has shipped with a version of the InstallShield product for creating custom installations since it was first introduced. InstallShield Tuner was introduced in September 2000 as a tool for network administrators to ease the transition to Win 2000 and the new MSI installation service.

Because InstallShield Tuner is specifically targeted at creating transform files for modifying MSI installations, it does not include any tools for authoring new installations. It does offer an extensive set of tools for configuring, modifying, validating and creating MST files. We liked the way the Tuner interface

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