Yes,
I'm asking myself whether it was a wise decision to move to MSI.
It's not an internal install, it's retail product. We had our custom program
in C++ and custom upgrade solution. It was working fine.
Now problems I'm fasing with MSI and WiX:
1. This probably comes from my insufficient knowdge of these technologies,
but each feature takes 3-4
times more time to implement than if I were writing it, for example, in
C
I might need to launch third party installs, under the same GUI
umbrella, but I can't launch
another Windows Installer package - so I need a complex bootstraper with
GUI.
2. WiX build times, (mostly light.exe) are very big. To make multilanguage
installs I have to build
full installation for each language, and it may take a lot of time if we
are taking about 10 languages,
for example.
3. Install times are bigger.
Yes, there are many things that are coming for free, when I use Windows
Installer and WiX,
but there are so many trade offs as well.
Matthew Janulewicz-2 wrote:
>
> At the risk of sounding anti-wix (I'm very pro-wix!) you might ask
> yourself if you need an installer at all. If you're not doing any kind
> of upgrades, uninstalls, etc., and everything is content... Why not just
> a DVD with a simple batch file that copies everything and creates
> shortcut(s)? It can easily be done and in the case of something so big,
> there is some overhead with any installer. It doesn't seem like this
> case warrants the sophistication inherent in an .msi.
>
> I've worked in shops where all our installations were internal, and for
> content we just pulled the goods right out of our source control tool.
> It is a different kind of file copy, but a file copy none the less. We
> saved a lot of time by not having to archive/compress huge files, etc.
>
>
> -Matt
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Igor
> Maslov
> Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007 2:16 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] How to improve speed of installation?
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> That's exactly kind of info I needed.
>
> 1. Seems that -sh is a solution for me. I don't use Windows Installer
> for
> upgrades. It's always a full install.
>
> 2. I generate single WiX file with all source files listed there. All I
> need
> is to lay out files on dvd in the same order as they are listed in the
> wix
> source file?
>
> If I compress all files into a single cab, are they in the same order
> as
> in Sequence table?
> In this case I'm good?
>
>
> Igor
>
>
> Mike Dimmick-2 wrote:
>>
>> The more components there are, the more checking has to be done (of
>> KeyPaths) to determine what needs to be copied. You could potentially
>> increase the number of files per component, but be aware that:
>>
>> - a component is only installed if its KeyPath is determined to be
>> out-of-date (older file version, mismatched hash)
>> - all files in a component are installed to the same directory
>> - there are problems with adding and removing files from a component
>>
>> WiX always generates hashes for unversioned files, unless the -sh
> switch
>> is
>> specified. However, if you do specify -sh, it also doesn't extract the
>> version number, making the feature useless. There is no other way to
>> override the hashing. This costs you time when building the MSI -
> because
>> the files going into the package must be hashed - and at install time,
>> because the existing file must be hashed. If you're installing large
> files
>> this process may take a lot of time since it has to read the whole
>> currently-installed file to decide whether to overwrite it. Whether
> this
>> is
>> good or bad depends on the relative speed of the source and
> destination
>> media and whether they can be run in parallel.
>>
>> I'd always assumed that the creation timestamp was taken into
>> consideration
>> for an unversioned file, but re-reading the SDK's Default Versioning
> Rules
>> it appears that actually, last installed file wins, for unversioned
> files
>> (as long as the currently-installed file has not been modified).
>>
>> Compressing the files might improve transfer speed from the DVD; the
>> overhead of decompressing is negligible on a modern system. The CAB
>> compression scheme isn't particularly advanced and therefore doesn't
> tax
>> the
>> processor.
>>
>> Another thing not often considered is the physical layout on the DVD.
> I
>> recall VS.NET 2003 taking a lot less time to install than VS.NET 2002
>> simply
>> because the physical file layout was woeful for 2002: the CD drive was
>> constantly seeking. Windows Installer installs the files in the
> sequence
>> listed in the Sequence column of the File table. It doesn't look like
>> there's any way to control the Sequence in WiX - it simply lays out
> the
>> files in the order that the intermediate files are supplied to light
> (for
>> a
>> wixlib, the order the wixobj files were supplied to lit), and within
> that,
>> the order they appeared in the source.
>>
>> --
>> Mike Dimmick
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Igor
> Maslov
>> Sent: 24 May 2007 19:55
>> To: [email protected]
>> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] How to improve speed of installation?
>>
>>
>> Hello everybody,
>>
>> Thank you very much for your advices. I tried several options but an
> issue
>> still remains.
>>
>> I was wondering if changing the way I organize components and media
> can
>> affect install speed.
>>
>> What will perform faster:
>>
>> 1. Having 1 component per file, or putting large number of files in a
>> single
>> component
>>
>> 2. Providing I install from DVD what is faster : uncompressed files or
> cab
>> .
>> Note that big chunk of input files is already compressed.
>>
>> 3. Is there any overhead like CRC computation, or anything like
> performed
>> at
>> "File Copy"
>> stage that I could switch off.
>>
>> Thank you ,
>> Igor
>>
>>
>>
>> Igor Maslov wrote:
>>>
>>> This is probably more Windows Installer question than a WiX specific.
>>>
>>> I have an install with abot 3 GB of files. All it does is copying
> files
>>> and creating shortcuts.
>>>
>>> MSI file has tranforms for several languages, this localization
> affects
>>> only installer GUI,
>>> set of files is language neutral and it's stored in separate cab
> files
>>> not
>>> embedded in MSI.
>>>
>>> The speed of the installation phase is very slow. At the beginning of
> the
>>> installation, just before copying files
>>> it sits there for 5 minutes.
>>>
>>> I wonder if there are any properties or settings I could use to
> improve
>>> speed of installation (and uninstall)
>>>
>>> Thank you
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context:
>>
> http://www.nabble.com/How-to-improve-speed-of-installation--tf3780060.ht
> ml#a
>> 10790358
>> Sent from the wix-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
>>
>>
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