Introduction
WinINSTALL LE (Limited Edition) allows you to quickly and easily repackage legacy applications (pre-Windows Installer) into packages suitable for distribution with the Microsoft® Windows Installer. WinINSTALL LE is a low-cost companion repackaging tool for Microsoft® Windows®.
WinINSTALL LE is based on the popular WinINSTALL software distribution product. For further information on Attachmate's WinINSTALL MSI Packager Professional or full WinINSTALL, and to purchase or register for support and updates for WinINSTALL LE, please visit:
http://www.attachmate.com/en-US/Products/PC+Lifecycle+Management/
This document and the WinINSTALL LE product are:
Copyright © 1991-2007 by Attachmate Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
System Requirements
Operating Sytem - Microsoft® Windows 2000, SP4/Windows XP/2003
Windows Installer 3.1 (setup will install 3.1 automatically, if necessary)
Installation
WinINSTALL LE is installed using a Windows Installer MSI file. To install WinINSTALL LE:
1. Run the self-extracting executable (WinINSTALLLE.EXE). This will install MSI 2.0 (if needed) and WinINSTALL LE.
2. Follow the prompts. Setup prompts include (optional) share creation to the WinINSTALL directory to facilitate use of the WinINSTALL Discover Wizard.
For security purposes, the package is digitally signed. (To confirm identity, right-click WinINSTALLLE.EXE, choose Properties, click Digital Signatures tab.)
Help
Extensive online help is available in the help files installed with WinINSTALL LE.
Support Forum
Attachmate provides a free forum for support and discussion of all WinINSTALL products at http://support.attachmate.com/solutions.html?prod=wininstall.
The known issues in this version of WinINSTALL LE are listed below.
When you execute WinINSTALLLE.exe initially, there is no visual cue to alert you that processing is taking place. As a result, there may be a long wait while it appears that nothing is happening. In fact, the MSI file and MSI loader are being extracted, which can be a lengthy process depending on the size of the package and whether you are loading from the network.
Malformed MSI packages can cause errors within the console. Use Orca or another tool to validate the package and fix any problems before using the console to manipulate the package.
If you click ‘Start Page’ in the Tree View after you have clicked any selection on the Start Page menu bar, it will not bring up the Start Page graphic on the console. To return to the Start Page graphic, you must click the Attachmate icon at the top on the menu bar.
The Discover executable will run on Windows 2000 and above. If you attempt to run this program on Windows 9x, you will receive a runtime error, rather than a message explaining that it will not work on Windows 9x.
Discover requires MSI 2.0 or later. If you attempt to run it on a system with MSI 1.x, you will receive an error message to that effect.
Note
that some MSI files produced by Discover may require editing to work properly. An
example of this situation is Netscape Navigator v7.
In this instance,
the package produced by Discover will properly install the product—but
the installation will generate several error messages.
In this case
the messages can safely be disregarded—the installed product will function
normally. The
reason the errors are produced is that WinINSTALL takes a very conservative
approach to converting a traditional installation to a Microsoft Windows
Installer package, in order to assure that nothing from the original installation
is lost. For
example, WinINSTALL MSI packages will, by default, attempt to register any
DLLs that appear to need registering. WinINSTALL optimizes this
approach by removing any such DLLs that appear to register by means of
Class entries. However, other Self Register entries can produce
errors or warnings, and it is not possible to determine beforehand whether
an individual Self Register entry will cause such a problem. The
workaround is to manually remove the offending entries.
On
a Vista machine with the Sidebar running, Discover fails in the after
snapshot section with a message that states "A sharing violation
occurred while accessing \path\WindowsSidebar\Settings.ini." With
the Sidebar turned off (i.e., "Exited"), Discover will complete.