As a network administrator, you need to alter or customize software setup packages before deployment. Historically, that involved repackaging the setup, which was difficult at best. With the release of Windows 2000, Microsoft introduced the Windows Installer Service and made your job harder, because according to Microsoft guidelines, you can no longer repackage an MSI installation to customize it.

At best, it's a problem. At worst, a major headache. But InstallShield Tuner is the solution!

Tuner allows you to take a Windows Installer setup package from an ISV or internal developer and customize it before you deploy it. You'll create MST transform files that customize your setup during installation. You'll control which features, registry entries, and shortcuts install on your users' systems.

And only InstallShield Tuner offers an intuitive user interface that allows administrators to customize ANY Windows Installer package.

Features

InstallShield Tuner provides:

• Simplified transform file creation: InstallShield Tuner is the first tool specifically designed to follow Microsoft's customization guidelines (by creating transforms), using a simple step-based GUI. Transforms, or MST files, allow you to add or subtract options and configurations from a software installation. Unlike many developer tools, InstallShield Tuner does not require any table editing or complex script editing to build a transform.
• Validated success: InstallShield Tuner allows you to validate both base packages (.MSI files) and transforms to ensure compliance with Microsoft's Windows 2000 logo requirements. Additionally, InstallShield Tuner helps administrators test the installation sequence, for both the transform and the original package, before deploying them to the enterprise.
• Intelligent transform matching: InstallShield Tuner automatically correlates transforms with .MSI packages, thus allowing administrators to easily create and manage multiple transforms for the same application-setup package.

Key InstallShield Tuner Features:

• Prevalidation of Base MSI: Allows validation of the Windows Installer (MSI) package before customizing it. Prevalidation provides a mechanism to ensure that the Windows Installer package from the ISV is valid. Administrators can use various evaluation files to validate the Windows Installer package. Output can be categorized into errors, warnings, or informational messages.
• Target System Configuration: Additional files and registry information can be included in a Windows Installer-based installation. Administrators can add, remove, or modify shortcuts.
• Identify Additional Servers: Provides the ability to add, modify, and remove additional servers for those applications that are configured to "install on first use" and need access to network servers. Additional servers are also needed by applications if a file is deleted or becomes corrupt. The application can copy the file automatically from the server. Additional servers provide the source integrity for the installations.
• Application Configuration: Provides the ability to add or modify properties that affect the application setup, as well as specify properties for the Windows 2000 Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel.
• Postvalidation: In addition to prevalidating the base Windows Installer package, InstallShield Tuner validates the MSI package with transform file after the transform has been created. When postvalidation is successful, it ensures that the base Windows Installer package and transform file are Windows Installer compliant. Like prevalidation, postvalidation provides administrators the flexibility to use the Windows Logo compliance evaluation file or their own evaluation file to validate the Windows Installer package and transform. Output can be categorized into errors, warnings, or informational messages.
• Troubleshooting and verifying UI sequence: InstallShield Tuner allows administrators to verify the sequence of user interface steps that will be performed when the transform is installed on the client workstation, without actually installing the application.
• Custom matching of MSI and MST pairs: Every transform file (MST) is associated with its base Windows Installer package (MSI). InstallShield Tuner remembers these associations, and automatically accesses the base MSI file when an existing transform project is opened.