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.

Ever wonder how an MSI registration ProductID is created?When installing an MSI, it registers on the system with a "strange" ProductID (different from regular ProductIDs) which is sometimes tricky to find. This is particularly challenging when you're trying to locate the package installer by its ProductID.

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.

Nowadays CI/CD(Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery) pipeline became a best practice for developers and DevOps helping them to manage the software process in a much easier and automated way.

There are numerous cloud services available for software developers, and some of them can be almost forgotten until we need them. And when we need them, they turn out to be invaluable.

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.

We’ve included a lot of new features in Advanced Installer this year. You now have a complete set of solutions for MSIX packaging, native integrations for Azure digital signing, repackager templates, and many more.

Release management and version control go hand in hand when delivering quality software, whether you are a solo developer or part of a development team.

Digital signing is an important stage of an application packaging cycle and can be achieved by code signing your own software’s certificates. By digitally signing your software, you prove your application’s authenticity and integrity upon installation and guarantee that the software you developed hasn’t been compromised or corrupted.

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.

Advanced Installer 17.5 brings you the most powerful GUI for creating and editing MSIX Optional Packages. Optimize your package downloads and deliver additional features on-demand, using the native MSIX platform.

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.

Application Packaging itself is just a small step within the whole process, starting with the application being requested by the business, and resulting in a finished product that is rolled out to production devices.

The latest version of Advanced Installer brings a lot of new powerful improvements that simplify your digital signing process.

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.

The latest version of Advanced Installer brings more than 25 features and improvements across all editions. Modernize and increase the security of your release process with our Device Guard Signing integration.