A robust standard for application configuration
Microsoft's Windows Installer is a foundational utility that has evolved to standardize application installation and configuration across the Windows platform. The core purpose is to provide a robust, standardized format for component management and deployment, which is vital for corporate environments and general ease of use.
Microsoft's Windows Installer is a software that focuses on Windows Installer 5.0 and earlier versions (but nothing before 2.0), providing a deep dive for software developers. The target audience is clearly those building desktop-style applications who need to leverage the service's API and understand the installer database.
Microsoft's Windows Installer’s key area of improvement throughout the versions is in patching and transaction processing. Windows Installer 3.0 and later significantly enhanced this with the ability to handle multiple patches in a single transaction. This integrates progress tracking, rollback, and reboots for a smoother, more reliable update process. Furthermore, version 3.0 brought about much faster patching by only updating affected files, a massive improvement over earlier versions.
Evolving features
The administrators also gained powerful tools starting with version 3.0, allowing them to use the API for comprehensive querying and inventory of product, feature, and patch information. This elevated administrative control, allowing for easier management of source lists for network, URL, or media sources from an external process. These features are indispensable for corporate deployment scenarios where detailed auditing and control over application states are essential.
In addition, the introduction of Windows Installer is addressed installation reliability by bringing transaction processing to multiple installation packages. This is a critical feature, ensuring that if one package in a group fails, or if the user cancels, the entire transaction rolls back to the original state. However, the requirement for a developer to support multiple installation package versions.
Final take
Microsoft's Windows Installer has become a comprehensive and essential service for desktop application deployment on Windows. Later versions, especially 5.0, introduce powerful security features for securing resources like new accounts and services, alongside granular control over component enumeration and services configuration. For developers, this provides a highly capable platform, but the need to understand the nuanced feature and platform compatibility across all supported versions.
Pros
- Provides a standardized format for component management and deployment
- Later versions support multi-patch and multi-package transaction processing for reliable installations
- Offers powerful administrative APIs for comprehensive inventory and product querying
- Allows for features like application advertisement and on-demand installation
Cons
- Requires managing different Redistributables for older Windows versions, notably for versions before 5.0
