http://www.wpiw.net
Intended audience: IT administrators, network admins, system/desktop support techs - or geeky home-types
If you're a systems administrator or desktop support technician, you know that sometimes you need to send out a CD, Zip file or other installation media to update your users systems. You just can't have full control over that system at all times, unfortunately...especially when it comes to application upgrade time for your home or mobile users...am I right?In the past, I've gone to some lengths to automate installations ranging from terminal emulation clients to service packs to Internet Browser migrations and of course, Windows Updates - but it all required a lot of logic and coding on my part.
A few years ago, I came across a program that was intended to help folks like myself - a menu-based system that helped process a lot of the menial logic like: If this system is Windows XP, or if this system has a particular registry key, or if this system has a particular file/folder, etc. then do x.
Hooray for free stuff that makes life easier for admins!
Introducing WPI, a menu system that allows you to create a handy menu-based or "batch-like" installation system that can perform actions based upon a variety of preset criteria that you specify, including the aforementioned registry/file/OS requisites listed above.
What I thought was cool was that WPI was an HyperText application, which means that more and more people are realizing the potential of this underused technology...think of it as a webpage, but run locally and has fully capability to interface with your system.
From the WPI website:
Windows Post-Install Wizard (WPI for short) is a hypertext application designed for giving users choice. While Windows does offer many ways of customizing the setup process out of the box, the major drawback is the lack of being able to select which applications an end user may install. In the past, end users and administrators needed to either download the files manually, or create overly complex scripts that could only be used once. WPI allows you to create one image, which can then be custom configured, and optionally, automated, so that end users can install any applications. WPI runs on all current versions of Windows and with some updating almost all older versions on Windows as well.So, you can tell WPI to check for the existence some resource like file/folder/registry etc. and then display a menu item based upon the results of that query. In effect, if no installation information is found for Microsoft Office, then I can tell WPI to include it on the menu to install.
Customizing WPI
Adding new applications/menu selections is easy...although it looks intimidating at first. Not all fields are required!
Above is a screenshot of a TightVNC installation - which we have created an automated setup routine and compiled it to exe using AutoIT. So, if TightVNC's uninstall registry key is not found, then we must assume it is not installed (at least not installed through normal means!) - if not installed, then make it available to install through the main menu. When selected, run the AutoIT script.
Create sets of tasks/installations
You can also create custom sets of installation routines or tasks (made available via drop down on the main installation window) - which makes it easy to create a custom setup for a department or special function with little trouble. Also, you can create dependancies; i.e. install updated ODBC client for application-x only if application-x is selected to install.
WPI is completely customizable right down to the window/tab/pop-ups/installation pics and much, much more...so branding it for your own company is not hard to do.
Learning curve? A little...
Obviously, this is something for more of you tech-heads out there that have to maintain a network or small/medium-sized IT shop.
I think it definitely has a place in your toolbox...if you don't think so, give it a try and make some room!
1 comments:
We use WPI for post imaging deployments of software. It works great and is easy to customize. I know it saves our company hours in setting up applications.
We deploy a base image and use WPI to customize each departments installation.
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