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Capture system changes to MST

Capture all changes to the local drives, registry, services and other areas of the system and save them to MST.

The system changes can be made eiter by a source installation or by the user’s actions (like copying files, importing .REG to the system registry, changing app settings).

1. Follow one of instructions below to capture system changes:

   • Capture on local host

   • Capture on a remote virtual machine

   Note

   Select the Manual processing mode on the Installation step of the capturing wizard to be able to make the manual system changes.

2. Once capturing is completed, open the capturing project in MSI Generator. By default, it will be opened automatically.

   • Open MGP project

3. It is highly recommended to review the captuing results and exclude resources that do not belong to the captured app.

   Note

   In some cases, a package with captured resources that belong to the system-related services like Windows Updates may fail during the installation. The common reason for such fails is trying to write to the system-protected registry/folders, locked for third-party installers.

   • [MGP] Exclude/include captured files, folders

   • [MGP][MSI settings] Exclude/include captured shortcuts

   • [MGP] Exclude/include captured registry

   • [MGP] Exclude/include captured services

4. Then, go to the Package > MST tab and click Browse…, located next to the MSI file field, to select the MSI package for which you need to create an MST.

   

5. Choose an MSI package (e.g. Firefox.msi) and click Open.

   

6. Specify (update) product information, compression type, advertising tables, active setup and other MSI settings:

   • [MGP][MSI settings] MSI shortcuts

   • [MGP][MSI settings] Active Setup

   • [MGP][MSI settings] Advertising tables (Class, ProgID, Extension, etc.)

   • [MGP][MSI settings] INSTALLDIR

   • [MGP][MSI settings] Media settings (compression type)

     Note

     Internal cabinets (option name: ‘Compressed in MSI’) are incompatible with MST.

   • [MGP][MSI settings] Merge Modules (MSM)

   • [MGP][MSI settings] Permissions (file system, registry)

   • [MGP][MSI settings] Product information

   • [MGP][MSI settings] Summary Information

7. Generate the MST clicking Build MST in the Package > MST tab.

   Note

   The generated MST will contain only those resources that do not exist in the selected MSI package.

   

8. Find your MST in the “MST” subfolder of the project folder. To open the project folder, click Go to…, located next to the Project folder field.

   

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