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InstallShield AdminStudio Professional 5.5 
by Bob Kelly

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 Tuner

InstallShield Tuner may be familiar to you even if you do not currently own AdminStudio. Available as Tuner OEM to other software vendors as a means of customizing the Windows Installer setups they provide, you may have already used this tool to customize deployments of Adobe Acrobat, Lotus Notes, and NetManage RUMBA. While these OEM implementations are limited to use with the MSI packages shipped by the vendor providing it, as a component of AdminStudio you may naturally use it with any MSI package you wish.

One long-standing feature I want to point out may be easy to overlook until you need it, and that is the ability to specify additional transforms to be applied prior to creating your own transform. One example of how you would require this capability is when attempting to create a response MST for a MSI that requires one- such as a language MST (e.g. 1033.mst).

Like the repackager, creating an MST does not mean being redirected to the DevStudio MSI editor, but instead provides a simple tree-view of the Windows Installer package which you may add, delete or modify the MSI package (thereby dictating the contents of your transform file).

Additionally, you may create a “Response Transform” that will launch the MSI setup and use the choices you make to determine the changes you desire. Each choice you make in the installation affects the value of a Windows Installer property. Instead of trying to determine what all those properties mean and which matter to you- this method allows you to customize installation choices without the need to do any “real editing” of the package.

DevStudio

As the name implies, DevStudio is InstallShield’s developer-focused MSI authoring tool. Although the optional userFigure C interface setting for view list styles is defaulted to “AdminStudio”, this is indeed the full version of InstallShield DevStudio. While editing looks very much like it did in the Repackager and Tuner components, DevStudio provides even more granular control and abilities to tweak your MSI package. One nice new feature since our last review is the Project Assistant.

The Project Assistant provides a far more user-friendly look at your package and saves you from having to remember where each of the items you want to work with are in the tree-view provided by the traditional interface (known as the Installation Designer view). Built-in help links and relevant links to related areas in the Installation Designer will make this your interface of choice for authoring packages. For repackaging, use of DevStudio may seldom be necessary but if (and when) you do need it, it is nice to have the power of DevStudio.

Note: DevStudio is the latest authoring solution from InstallShield which combines the features of InstallShield Developer and InstallShield Professional. If you have in-house developers using these tools, you now also have someone to go to with any questions!
 

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