Global MSI Software

Traditional or legacy software installations in the past were developed in a variety of ways. Setup developers designed their install programs to concentrate on their own products which often impacted on programs that were already installed on the PC.

With legacy installations in the past, there might be two applications using the same file, but one might be designed to run on an older version. This led to “DLL hell” where the installation of one application would cause other applications to stop working.

Inevitably the process of ‘rolling back’ or uninstalling the problem program resulted in system down time and - in more sever cases - having to rebuild the PC completely and reinstall all your software.

Several years ago Microsoft set out to address these and other issues. One of the emerging solutions was the development of Windows® Installer technologies.

The Windows® Installer allows the efficient installation and configuration of applications. The installer can also provide your installations with new capabilities not previously available with legacy installations. Some of the many added capabilities are:-

	Advertise applications without installing them until required
	Self-repair an application if corruption occurs
	Upgrade applications quicker and more efficiently
	Better management of shared resources
	Customise your software installations to your organisations requirements

By utilising these added capabilities and efficiencies your organisation can expect to achieve a lower Total Cost of Ownership.

An .msi is an installation package containing all the information that Windows® Installer needs to install or uninstall an application. The information usually stored in an .msi file would be the applications files, shortcuts, registry keys, security enhancements etc.

The chances are that you already have the capabilities to use Windows® Installer packages already. The technology is available for Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 family, Windows® XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Me. It’s also provided as a service pack to Windows NT® version 4.0, Windows 98, and Windows 95.