Bogdan Mitrache
Bogdan is the product lead for Advanced Installer. He has over a decade of experience in application packaging and deployment, you can also find him speaking at conferences and contributing on industry related communities.
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Written articles
PacKit, a new home for your software packages
I started working in tech in 2009. My early years were focused on building technology and supporting developers in building installers for their desktop applications.
Trusted Signing Integration: Advanced Installer's Newest Standard
Digital Signing should be a formality for professionals. It’s been almost 30 years since the first software was digitally signed but we still have many users who don’t know how or why they should use a code signing certificate. We need it to protect their intellectual property and enhance the cybersecurity of their end-users.
MSIX Supported Features by OS Version
Building an MSIX package for your app? Use the table below to check what Windows version you can target, depending on the features you are using.
MSIX Predictions for 2022 - What to expect
MSIX has been available for almost four years now, since Microsoft first announced it. Although 2021 did not deliver all of the advances I had hoped for, I was pleased to see MSIX adoption continue to expand on a regular basis.
How to Automate MSIX Package Validation with MSIX Tweaker?
Sometimes, we have a package folder in our MSIX, containing files that are not part of the redirected locations list. Since all the folders need to be part of the known-VFS list, we need to use a fixup to copy those files from the WindowsApps folder (after the MSIX is installed) to the location you want.
Apache Log4j Vulnerability Does Not Affect Advanced Installer
On December 10th, 2021, the CVE-2021-44228 was released, documenting a major vulnerability with Apache Log4j.
MSIX Introduction: A comprehensive 24-chapter guide
Get a quick 5,000 words introduction that will bring you up to speed with the latest packaging and deployment technology for Windows.
Managing Non-VFS Files when working with an MSIX-packaged application
Why does my MSIX app fail to find files from the package? The short answer is that this is related to how the files inside the VFS folder are, or are not, virtualized.
False-positive Malware Detection Announcement
On September 21st, 2021, the Morphisec team published an article explaining how a PowerShell script can be used to deploy malware via an MSI installation package.
Enterprise Application Packaging Best Practices and Recommendations
Your application's installer is the very first direct interaction of users with your product. And, a positive first impression is essential for the success of any software.
Smart PSF: Add a Fixup to Your MSIX Application
As software packagers, we know the struggle that comes with new technologies. And there's no need to sugarcoat it -- is downright stressful.
Introduction to Package Support Framework
To help with the MSIX transition, Microsoft has released the Package Support Framework (PSF) - an open-source framework that enables you to apply runtime fixups for issues that might appear when migrating legacy applications that you don’t have the source code for.
Discontinuing XP support
As a Microsoft partner, Advanced Installer supports all the official Windows versions, and we will continue to do so with every new update, but as the platform evolves, so does our application. Evolution always implies that some things are left behind to make room for better solutions.
Our Microsoft Ignite session
This year our team was invited to hold a technical session at Microsoft Ignite, showcasing our latest MSIX support. You can find the original recording of the session and the slides on the conference website, or you can watch our edited version in the video included in this article.
MSIX - Biggest Update for Windows Installer
Create a single package for all Windows platforms, the promise of MSIX, Microsoft’s vision for the future of Windows Installer. MSIX is a complete containerization solution which inherits all the great features in UWP and most importantly, it applies to all Win32, WPF, Windows Forms, and UWP applications.
Windows 10 Creators Update
A deep dive into our recent major release, Advanced Installer 14, on the updates it brings for Windows 10 Creators Update.
Meet us at BUILD 2017
If you are attending BUILD, in Seattle, visit the Advanced Installer booth on the expo floor. We’ve got some great new tools to showcase from our latest release. Together with our Microsoft colleagues, we’ve worked hard over the last couple of months to help you get your desktop application in the Windows Store and reach new users.
Debug MSIX packaged apps with Advanced Installer
Debug your desktop application inside an MSIX app container using the Visual Studio extension from Advanced Installer Professional edition, or higher.
The AppDetails Setup Tip Library
Every application is a puzzle for IT professionals to figure out when it comes to a customized, silent deployment. What switches will the setup accept? How can automatic updates be disabled? How can shortcuts be managed? How can system restarts be prevented?
New switch to disallow Win32 App installs on Windows
In the latest Windows Insiders update there is a new OS-level switch that allows users to block installation of Win32 apps outside of the Windows Store. This means your MSI/EXE setups may no longer install for users that have this option enabled.
Advanced Analytics for Desktop Applications
Know your users, understand how they use your application and improve it to fit their requirements. Get live insights on how many unique users launch your application daily and how many times they launch it.
Antivirus Whitelisting Pains
If you're a software vendor doing multiple releases a year, you're bound to hit (and hate) this problem - false-positive detection by antivirus solutions. It's just one of the neverending problems of ISVs that's eating a chunk of our time, without any ROI.
Google Analytics Integration for Installer Analytics
Starting with version 2.9 of Installer Analytics you can integrate our service with Google Analytics and take your data analysis to the next level.
Mixpanel Integration for Installer Analytics
Starting with version 2.9 of Installer Analytics you can integrate our service with Mixpanel to gain deeper insights from your data.
Installer Analytics deciding the fight between Launch Conditions and Prerequisites
Installer Analytics to decide when it is better to include a prerequisite into your installer or to use a launch condition. Making the right choice can help you simplify the installation steps, thus provide a faster and simpler installation process for your users.
Monitoring Desktop Installations on Windows
You might think that the users downloading your application also install it. That is not true. If you want to see how many users install your application successfully you need to track the application, in this case its setup package.