Creating a Custom Config Transform

[ranorris]

I'm not sure how to do this, or how BEST to do this. I want to install an application, in this case Adobe Acrobat Reader 6 (which nicely enough is a vendor supplied MSI). AFter the installation I want to make some customizations to the application. I can do that, and generate an MSI as well. If I install both MSI's I get the desired result. However, I'd like to be able to create an MST to apply to the original vendor supplied MSI to achieve the same results. Is there a recommended way of doing this? And if so, HOW?

Thanks in advance,

Rob Norris

[CChong]

You can use InstallShield Tuner that is a part of AdminStudio to create transforms (MST). Tuner will not modify vendor supplied MSI and save all the changes you make to the MSI in a transform file.

[ranorris]

Not trying to sound stupid, but how do I do that? I ran repackager right after installing the MSI, made the changes I wanted, and then ran repackager again. This lets me generate an MSI.

I tried some tricks like doing a diff between the two MSIs to create an MST, but when I tried to use the new MST, it didn't know where any of the files from the MSI I had created were, so I got an error (cancel / retry / ignore) for each of those files.

The generated MSI seemed to have quite a few changes, 422 registry entries and 15 files. Maybe there is a much simpler way to do this than what I am thinking of.

THanks,

Rob

[CChong]

Rob, you need to launch AdminStudio first. Once you launch AdminStudio you will see Tuner in the Start tab. Double click on Tuner to launch it.

Once your Tuner is running, you can specify the MSI package that you want to customize. In addition you can also specify where you want to create your transform. Tuner by default picks a default location and default file name for you.

Then click on Create transform button and Tuner will display all the data that your MSI contains in form of different views. For example Files View will contains all the files that MSI contain, Registry view will contain all the regsitry entries.
You can then add/delete/modify any piece of data you want and save the transform.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

[ranorris]

Okay, I understand that part. It's just as I mentioned, I'm dealing with 400+ registry entries and some files. I exported the reg entries from the MSI I had created when capturing the custom config, and imported them into the MST I wanted to create, and that generated some 500+ errors, so I'll have to find some other way.