I was having some limitations on my Windows 95 machine, so I decided to setup Windows NT on it as a triple-boot machine (95-NT-NT). While I was at it, I decided I would take the opportunity to monitor each software install with InstallRite. Of course, that means that it takes more time than usual to install each software (especially if you keep adding stuff, the scans will take longer), but it pays off in the end, as we'll see. One NT system would be my "kit building machine", and the other one will be the "recipient" to verify the effectiveness of software installation. So I proceeded to scan my system before each software install, and I took the time to configure/tweak these programs to my taste. If you have serial numbers to enter for your shareware programs, do it now too (but make sure you have enough licenses). When this is done, I complete the process, and I get the whole installation trace in a single entry in InstallRite.
Before doing an InstallKit, I recommend doing one check through the installation trace to make sure that InstallRite didn't pick up more than what you intended. As I point out in my paper "Computer snooping using InstallRite", Windows activity itself can generate things that will be picked up by InstallRite. You should clean these entries up, just to make sure you won't get stability problems afterwards with a bug-contaminated software package. Once the cleaning is done, you simply click on "Build InstallKit", and choose the appropriate options in the dialog window. The result is a self-extract file that once executed will deliver the same result on your hard drive as the completed normal installed software would leave, along with configuration.
I actually did my tests with the following software packages: Adobe Acrobat Reader, GetRight, WinZip, ZoneAlarm and Microsoft Office 97. I also tested an uninstall process with WinZip. And I decided to push the envelope by doing the same thing with Service Pack 6 and my audio card drivers.
Nothing too spectacular with installing WinZip, Acrobat Reader and GetRight. These programs are quite simple and quite small, so everything goes smoothly. One double-click and a couple seconds after, these softwares are installed and already configured to my liking. Then I proceed with ZoneAlarm, which contains a lot of configuration options. Among them is the list of applications allowed to connect to Internet. Here again, it worked fine, except for one little quirk: the check box that enables logging (in the Alerts panel) does not stick over with the InstallKit package. But everything else is as it should be. This could be because I cleaned one entry too much in the installation trace database.
Then came the real meat: Office 97. Now this is where InstallRite becomes an interesting tool. After my initial scan of the system, I installed Microsoft Office 97 on my PC. Then I rebooted, and installed the Service Release 1 and Service Release 2b. I rebooted again, and then proceeded to install the clipart. I did other customizations, and when I was satisfied, I perform the second scan to capture the result. When I installed it on my "recipient machine", everything went perfectly fine. The installation would require a reboot (only one), and be fully operational and up to date with patches. Service Pack 6 worked perfectly fine as well, and if you made backup information available for de-installation when you installed it, that follows as well.
But InstallRite doesn't do miracles. When I first installed my Audio card drivers, I needed to reboot the computer 3 or 4 times, as it was detecting the same hardware again and again, until it was happy with its settings. Even if I did my second scan only after the Audio drivers were completely installed, I still had to reboot 3 or 4 times when I installed the InstallKit on the recipient machine. Nothing to blame on InstallRite, I guess it's the way the Audio Drivers are built.
What I didn't say yet is that installing the InstallKits are much more faster than regular installs, or even "silent installs" from original setup files. First, you save the time by not clicking on all these setup screens, choosing the path and the program group you're going to install to, the License agreement that you don't have the choice to agree anyway, etc. You also save time in the case of a program like Ms-Office, as the InstallKit doesn't waste time "Checking for available free space", when it was clearly showing on the preceding screen that there is plenty of space. It doesn't waste time also for "Checking for previous versions installed", when you already took care on de-installing the previous version. You save the time of not having to take extra steps to apply the patches, as they are already included. And it also saves time on copying the files to the hard drive. It is not copying some default files that it writes to after, it delivers the right stuff right ahead. You can notice the speed gain with small applications like WinZip, but you can really appreciate it when you deal with big applications like MS-Office. Instead of taking about 5 minutes the regular way (from CD), it only took around 1:30 to 2 minutes flat with the InstallKit. That's efficient.
And the Uninstall package successfully performed as well. A word of notice about de-installs: when you're in the process of collecting your data to build the InstallKit, make sure to go ahead and clean up the de-installation process. Most of the times, de-installing software will still leave some traces on the machine of its presence. Making sure to remove everything before doing the second scan will ensure you that you will have an "improved" remover.
Also, I couldn't try it, but the same technique could probably be used to create a package for a network printer. You install a network printer on one machine, you capture the installation footprint, and now you can install this printer to your machines without having to go and define it in the Printer panel on every machine. I wish I had that for Project SOB, I would have kicked ass!
5. InstallRite
7. Conclusion
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