Best Practices

This section discusses some guidelines to follow when repackaging an application.

When repackaging an application, it's best to implement the following Best Practices:


Best Practice Explanation
Capture everything using the Repackaging Wizard and exclude using the Repackager Interface It is best to repackage using the Flexera Software-provided exclusions and then use the Repackager Interface to visually remove unwanted items from the capture. Because this occurs post-capture, you do not need to recapture the legacy setup if you inadvertently exclude items from the Windows Installer package you are building.

Since Windows Installer does not support packaging device drivers, you would need to create custom actions to install device drivers.
Repackage on a clean system It is essential that you repackage applications on a "clean" system to ensure you capture all changes made by the installation.
Exit all other applications Other applications may lock files or directories and may hinder the performance of the setup and repackaging.
Run Repackager over the network Repackager is configured to ignore its own files and output by default, which is sufficient in most cases. However, if you want to ensure your machine is completely clean, run Repackager remotely over the network and store output files to a network drive.

For example, if you are repackaging on a clean system and have AdminStudio installed on a production machine, map the production machine to a drive on the clean system. You can then run Repackager from the production machine. When picking an output directory, store the output back onto the production machine instead of on the clean machine. This process ensures you do not inadvertently capture Repackager files during repackaging. This functionality works whether you use a physical computer as a clean system or a program such as VMware to create a virtual clean system.
Only repackage non-MSI-based setups

Windows Installer setups should not be repackaged. They should either be edited in the InstallShield Editor or, as Microsoft recommends, by creating a transform, which can also be done in the InstallShield Editor.

You should not repackage MSI packages for the following reasons:

  • Repackaging a MSI package is against Microsoft Best Practices.
  • If you make changes to a MSI package, vendors will no longer provide support for that product.
  • If you repackage a MSI package, the component codes within the MSI package are not retained and, hence, future patching or upgrades will not work.
  • Traditionally, repackaging tools ignore the MSI-specific data in the registry. This results in an incomplete package.

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