User Guide

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About Microsoft Windows Installer
Wizard\ on the destination computer. These .MSI files do not have to be left on the
destination computer, but if they are, the end user does not need the source media to
repair or reinstall an installation.
What if your end users don’t have Windows Installer?
The Windows Installer runtime is built into the Windows 2000, Windows XP, and
Windows Me operating systems. Because the Windows Installer runtime is not available
on some target systems, Wise for Windows Installer lets you create an .EXE file that
installs the Windows Installer runtime before beginning the application installation. Use
this option if your target computers have older operating systems. See Setting Build
Options for a Release on page 187 and Adding Prerequisites to a Release on page 189.
What is advertisement?
Advertisement is a way to deploy applications in large organizations. It is available with
Windows Installer, but only for supported platforms. (See Platform Support of
Advertisement in the Windows Installer SDK Help.) During installation development, you
can set features or entire applications to be advertised. End users invoke advertised
items by launching a shortcut, opening a file with an advertised file extension, or by
accessing any other entry point.
If a feature or application is advertised, only the entry points to the feature or
application are installed. Example: If the application Microsoft Word is advertised to
destination computers, the end users still see the Microsoft Word icons in their Start
menu and Desktop, and the file extension .doc is registered, but none of the files that
make up Microsoft Word are actually installed.
How does Wise for Windows Installer support advertisement?
In Wise for Windows Installer, you can set default advertisement on a per-feature basis
on the Feature Details dialog. If you advertise features, however, you must include
Windows Installer function calls within the application to initiate a feature-level
installation of the necessary files when an advertised entry point is invoked.
For information on coding an application for advertisement, see Advertisement in the
Windows Installer SDK Help. Microsoft Windows Installer provides command lines for
advertising an entire application. See Command Line Options in the Windows Installer
SDK Help.
How do I use advanced features?
Most advanced Windows Installer features require you to use Windows Installer function
calls in an application. Other features require specific operating systems, such as
Windows 2000 or Windows 2000 Server.
Example: You could add a menu option for a spell checker, but design the installation so
that the files necessary for the spell checker are not installed by default. When the end
user selects the spell checker menu option, your code can use Windows Installer
functions to install the necessary files on demand.
While Wise for Windows Installer can help you bundle an application into an installation
package, it cannot help you design, develop, and code an application to use Microsoft
Windows Installer APIs. Use the Windows Installer Software Development Kit (SDK)
online help, which is installed with Wise for Windows Installer, as a reference for coding
Windows Installer functionality into an application.