Windows Installer is a new installation service provided by Microsoft Windows. Windows Installer allows you to install software that supports Windows Installer without displaying any installer windows. This installation method is called silent installation. For silent installation, you can specify the installation settings by using command options and .mst files called transforms. You do not need to check the installer windows or to define processing for each window when creating an AIT file.

JP1/Software Distribution provides AIT file templates for software that supports Windows Installer. By customizing one of these templates, you can easily perform remote installation of software that supports Windows Installer. To use an AIT file template to remotely install software onto client PCs, client software of version 07-50 or later and Windows Installer 2.0 or later must be installed on the client PCs.

Windows Installer 2.0 is installed by default in Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 3 or later). In other Windows operating systems, you must manually install Windows Installer 2.0, which can be downloaded from Microsoft's Web site. JP1/Software Distribution provides an AIT file for distributing the components of Windows Installer 2.0. The AIT file eases distribution of the components. For details about the AIT file for distributing the components of Windows Installer 2.0, see B. AIT Files Supported by JP1/Software Distribution.

The following figure shows the flow of remote installation tasks for software that supports Windows Installer.

Figure E-1 Flow of remote installation tasks for software that supports Windows Installer

Organization of this section

E.1 Checking the command line of the MSIEXEC command

E.2 Templates provided by JP1/Software Distribution

E.3 Template customization

E.4 Creating the program product ID file

E.5 Storing the created files

E.6 Packaging

E.7 Performing remote installation