Repackage existing installation to MSI

Repackage your existing installation (EXE, MSI, VBS, CMD, etc.) into MSI package. Note that the changed permissions to the file system and registry will be also captured.

1. In order to re-create the business logic of any existing installation in MSI, it is needed to capture all changes that this installation makes to the local drives, registry, services and other areas of the system.

   Follow one of instructions below to capture the source installation:

   • Capturing on the localhost

   • Capturing in the Windows Sandbox

   • Capturing in the Docker

   • Capturing on a remote virtual machine

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

   • Open MGP project

3. It is highly recommended to review the capturing 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, specify product information, compression type, advertising tables, active setup and other necessary for you 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)

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

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

   • [MGP][MSI settings] Product information

   • [MGP][MSI settings] Summary Information

5. Switch to the Package tab, ensure that the MSI package format is selected and click Build MSI to generate the MSI package from the project.

   

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

   

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Note

PACE Suite covers the whole range of application packaging tasks - learn more.

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