More about TRANSFORMS

MST - Transforms

Windows Installer provides a standard packaging format for applications and a standard method for customizing applications. You can tailor an application to a particular group of users by taking the application's .msi file and customizing it by creating and using a transform that installs a selected set of features for that group of users. For example, for a group of users in the finance department, you might create a Microsoft Office transform that installs a special set of finance tools in Microsoft Excel. For a group of users in the marketing department, you might create a transform that installs a particular set of Microsoft PowerPoint templates.

In most deployment situations, you need only to maintain a single .msi file for each application and a library of transforms that you can apply to such files.

At its basic level, a transform file contains a set of differences between the base package (provided by the application manufacturer) and the customized package.

You can also use a transform to answer all installation questions for the user. This can eliminate the need for user intervention during the installation of an application while replacing the manufacturer's defaults with defaults appropriate for your organization. This is particularly useful in customizing and performing unattended installations.

The following are the most common application customizations that you can generate using transforms. You can:·

Specify the features to be installed. (Make a feature unavailable and invisible to the user).

· Define the level of user intervention permitted during an installation. This works in combination with the command-line options you set.

· Specify the answers to be provided to the Setup UI during the installation.

· Specify a location to install the files.

· Specify the placement of shortcuts.

· Add files to the installation.

· Specify the install state of a feature: Advertised, Run Locally, or Run From Source.

· Add, modify, or remove shortcuts.

· Modify the upgrade behavior.

· Specify the registry settings to be added or changed during the installation.

Note: You apply transforms as part of an initial installation. You cannot apply transforms to an application that is already installed.

Differences Between Command Line Options and Transforms·

A transform is persistent until the application is removed; as command-line actions apply only to the specific execution of the command line.

· Transforms can modify both public and private properties; command-line options for Windows Installer can only affect public properties.

· Both transforms and Windows Installer command-line options can affect directories and files; only transforms can perform actions that affect the registry.

Posted by Prasanna Kumar