Software Deployment

John,

Repackaging drivers can be problematic at best. I have not tackled this particular package, but I recommend analyzing the setup files to determine if a command line tool or INF file is included that you can utilize in a custom action to get the driver installed. You might also try scripting the installation instead of repackaging it (when hardware is involved, this really is the most reliable way to do it.) Is the setup.exe from InstallShield or Wise? If you need an MSI for some reason, an MSI wrapper script can do the trick (see my paper on doing this here).

As for the forum, I've done my best to get the word out (by email, newsletter and a message board home page announcement) but the site has undergone several changes and the biggest is the replacement of the old message board software. There were many limitations, but unfortunately no means of migrating the messages to this board. It was this problem that kept AppDeploy with such a bad message board implementation for so long, but finally bit the bullet. The old board is still up (temporarily) at http://cgi.appdeploy.com/cgibin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi but will be taken down soon. I am working on taking many of the more popular threads and making them available as static content so they are not lost forever.

Thank you Bob for responding.

I have decided to user Winbatch to start the silent uninstall of the package. The reason for this is that a silent install of InstallShield will return control back to the MSI even though it isn't finished. The Winbatch script will watch the processes running for the setup program and the will terminate itself once the silent install is done. I then continue with the MSI installation. The issue I am having now is that I overwrite some of the files the silent install creates so that I can have an advertised shortcut. I am relocating some files and registry keys to the user's My Documents folder. This will allow for each individual user to see only their own fax messages. The problem I am having is that the advertised shortcut's Icon is not correct and when clicking on it, it does bring up the MSIexec dialog that it is gathering information and populates the HKCU but doesn't copy the files over for each new person that logs in. I am not sure what I am doing wrong for this not to work. Any advise is greatly appreciated.

John Summers

I am a little newer to the packaging world, but I am having the exact same problem with Esker's Lanfax 4. I have repacked it into an .msi with Wise, and cannot get it to install the lanfax printer no matter what I do? Can you offer some more detailed information on what you did or what I can do to get this to work.

Thank-you

Joshua Staple