What do you think about MSI wrappers?

What do you think about using MSI wrappers, i.e. encapsulating setup.exe in
MSI in order to deploy by GPO, or encapsulating MSI in order to specify some
command-line parameters - when creating transform is for whatever reason not
possible.

I thought is quite bad idea since it creates the illusion of the possibility
to uninstal and repair in add/remove programs, which may not be the case; if
anything, zap file could be used instead, which at least woudn't pretend to
be real thing; and after all, since the target product does not become
really managed, why not to use logon or bootup script. But I see there are
numerous wrapper utilities, so maybe it's OK to wrap?

regards,
Vadim Rapp

Why can't you repair or Uninstall from Add/Remove Programs? It's actually
pretty easy. If the wrapper program knows the productcode of the installed
product there are MSI APIs that will uninstall and repair.

--
Phil Wilson
Definitive Guide to Windows Installer
http://www.apress.com/book/view/1590592972


"Vadim Rapp" <nospam@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:Ovhn8bzSJHA.5244@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> What do you think about using MSI wrappers, i.e. encapsulating setup.exe
> in MSI in order to deploy by GPO, or encapsulating MSI in order to specify
> some command-line parameters - when creating transform is for whatever
> reason not possible.
>
> I thought is quite bad idea since it creates the illusion of the
> possibility to uninstal and repair in add/remove programs, which may not
> be the case; if anything, zap file could be used instead, which at least
> woudn't pretend to be real thing; and after all, since the target product
> does not become really managed, why not to use logon or bootup script. But
> I see there are numerous wrapper utilities, so maybe it's OK to wrap?
>
> regards,
> Vadim Rapp
>

Is a MSI file embedded in the Setup.exe? If so then there may be some
maintenance problems in this case, however, uninstall should not be a
problem. The wrapper should be able to have a custom action to
uninstall the main wrapped Setup.exe.

I don't know how management of patches and such would work though.

Your original example was "encapsulating setup.exe in MSI", like MSI 4.5.
Embedding the MSI file in the setup.exe is the reverse, but no, you wouldn't
want to maintain a product like that, and anyway the MSI needs extracting
out of the exe to some location where it can be installed from, so just keep
it there.
--
Phil Wilson
Definitive Guide to Windows Installer
http://www.apress.com/book/view/1590592972


"Install.Me.Dan" <Daniel.Lee.ME@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:880cbb7a-b43e-4352-9128-44cb150e35c9@q30g2000prq.googlegroups.com...
> Is a MSI file embedded in the Setup.exe? If so then there may be some
> maintenance problems in this case, however, uninstall should not be a
> problem. The wrapper should be able to have a custom action to
> uninstall the main wrapped Setup.exe.
>
> I don't know how management of patches and such would work though.

PW> Why can't you repair or Uninstall from Add/Remove Programs? It's
PW> actually pretty easy. If the wrapper program knows the productcode of
PW> the installed product there are MSI APIs that will uninstall and
PW> repair.

Because generally speaking, encapsulated program may be not Installer-based.

Vadim Rapp