I was wondering if someone could help me with information on how to
take several smaller install files and create a larger more function
installer out of these packages.
We currently use a very arcane batch file to start the individual
installers I would like to find an easier way to setup our software.
Thank you in advance.
Do a search for the "Install Shield" or "InstallShield" and
"Wise" installers.
It has been a while since I used InstallShield, but at that time
it had a wizard that let you specify where every single file was
to go and every registry key that needed to be created.
You would need to be able to unpack all of the files for your
current set of applications *and* you would need to know what
registry keys, shortcuts, etc need to be put where.
I'm not sure it would be worth the effort: you would be able to
pack some or all of your applications into a single InstallShield
package that could be started with a single command, but setting
up that InstallShield package in the first place would be at
*least* as time consuming and complicated as creating your
current batch file.
This is one of the reasons I like disk imaging. If machines are
hardware identical (or at least close enough that they can use
the same drivers), then you can easily set up one machine - OS
and apps - tweak it as necessary, then create a disk image of
that machine that can be copied onto as many machines as your
heart desires.
