In 2018, Microsoft delivered a breakthrough packaging technology to enable a flawless application packaging process, including enhanced features to help IT Pros and Developers carry out updates and customizations in a more reliable way.

Scripts have been traditionally used by ISVs to add Custom Actions to their applications and make changes to the environment. They have been present in MSI and App-V packaging formats for ages, while for MSIX, they were introduced and supported about a year after Microsoft announced the MSIX release.

A firewall is a network security system that can be found on any modern operating system. It's purpose is to act as a barrier against network-based intrusions, to monitor and control incoming and outgoing traffic following an organization's predetermined security rules.

Microsoft recently came out with an MSIX-related packaging format called the MSIX Bundle, which includes safer and more reliable deployments as well as auto-updates and improved widespread support - which makes our life easier as application packagers.

Managing an infrastructure doesn’t only require updating software, creating OS deployments, or applying GPOs (Group Policy Object).

MSIX packages are installed by default per-user, and the option to provision per-machine MSIX applications is possible through SCCM - which is not yet available in Task Sequences.

If you missed out on our previous blog articles about MSIX, make sure to check out this comprehensive guide to get insights about the technology and the changes it brings to the industry. To continue understanding the different tools and best practices MSIX has, this article will go into the MSIX Packaging Tool. We discuss what it is, how it works, and finally, we will show a side by side comparison using our free Advanced Installer Express edition.

Environment variables are settings or paths that are set outside of a program and can be globally accessed by any software.

With App-V packages closing to end-of-life (2026), the reality of a transition to MSIX is much closer and many are starting to research the ins and outs of what it entails. Although we now know that MSIX is not an update to MSI, but a completely new technology, there are still some correlations that we'd like to address.

Starting with version 17.3, Advanced Installer natively supports Device Guard Signing. This feature is of most use for the vendors to prepare their software product installers to be used in enterprise environments.

When building a new version of an installation package, you should pay attention not only to adding improvements but also ensuring a seamless upgrade to the old version.

If you have ever wondered how fonts are installed in an MSIX package or if you want to master all MSIX concepts, you landed on the perfect page. In the following article, we’ll see how to add and register fonts so your package will be more impactful.

On a recent post, we explored how MSIX deployments are done via SCCM, covering the scenario when a per-user installation is needed.

Recently, in one of our previous articles, we covered how MSIX redirects user data to specific locations.

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.

Although not necessarily common practice, there are some instances where you would want to prevent users from uninstalling specific MSIX packages such as monitoring software that is required to gather data from all employees.

MSIX Modification Package is a type of MSIX package format introduced by Microsoft with the goal of decoupling customizations from the main application. Launched with the release of their MSIX packaging format, the MSIX Modification Package is an MSIX package meant to store the customizations of the application.

Automation. A word heavily used around industries, especially the software one. A word that arouses great interest for every manager, service, or business owner.

Every new MSIX package we build allows us to learn more and improve the tools we build. The whole Advanced Installer team got involved.

We learned in How does Files Redirection work with MSIX that user data files, either from the project or created by executables, are automatically redirected to: %localappdata%\packages\PublisherName.AppName_hash\LocalCache.