When you decide to move up to Windows Installer, it's probably a good idea to remember that (a little like Dorothy and Kansas) "we're not in Visual Basic anymore." Windows Installer is not an authoring system like PDW or VS Installer 1.1. It's officially described as a "service" that is native to Windows 2000, ME and XP. (But Microsoft offers versions that extend compatibility down to Windows 95, 98, and NT.) Microsoft is leaning heavily in favor of some of their software business partners to provide the developer tools to actually create the .msi files for Windows Installer. For VB 6.0 programmers (a whole new system is available in VB.NET), Microsoft recommends the Installshield product based on the Windows Installer technology. Wise Solutions is another major vendor of Windows Installer based systems. Both Installshield and Wise have downloadable free evaluation versions. In fact a complete list of all the software that supports this can be found at this link.

Although we started our quest looking for a simpler, easier install technology, we seem to have arrived at a more complex and difficult one. It's all in the name of more features and function, however. But if you decide to really get serious about developing your own full featured install packages, Mike Gunderloy has written a complete book about how to do it: VB/VBA Developer's Guide to the Windows Installer (Developer's Handbook Series) (Sybex, April 2000, List Price: $39.99).

Wanna Chat ?

Transcripts are still available for Microsoft sponsored online Chat sessions covering installer issues. Sign up for chats at this Microsoft site. For example, these are some recent related chats:

• Deployment in Visual Basic - January 7, 2003
• Windows Installer - Patches and Upgrades - January 8, 2003
• Windows Installer 3.0 - September 23, 2004