Capturing all changes during an application install on Windows

Question

Hi,

I need to monitor and report on all changes (folders and directories added, permissions changed, registry entries added) that are made during the installation of a software program. Can anyone suggest a tool that is capable of doing this?

Thanks, MagicAndi.

Answer 1

Looks like this is a duplicate of a question answered already on ServerFault (my bad!). The answers given there are:

• Process Monitor from SysInternals Software
• Total Uninstall from Martau.com

Answer 2

I've used Process Monitor on multiple occasions to document the impacts of installing COTS software on servers. Has always seemed to do the trick.

Answer 3

Your question is a bit open ended since it is not entirely clear what the overall goal is:

1. Application Repackaging: capture all changes and then package them into a deployable package format such as MSI (or similar).
2. Reporting / Monitoring: just looking for a way to "see what happens" during an installation.

For application repackaging there are tools such as AdminStudio and Wise InstallStudio with very comprehensive feature sets and a hefty price tag (and learning curve).

Then there are more light weight tools such as PictureTaker and InstallRite which I suppose are better suited for "reporting purposes" (though these can be used for application repackaging as well).

Note: I am not sure if PictureTaker is actively developed anymore.

Answer 4

MagicAndi, thanks for clarifying your question. Seeing as you want to create a WIX setup, I want to add a new answer with some hints on how to accomplish this in the quickest way.

I would recommend using the InstallRite software to get a log of changes done by the installer you got. This tool does not allow you to convert the capture into an MSI, but it gives you a good change log (which does contain a bit of junk). The PictureTaker tool appears to have been renamed and is now commercial - it does allow conversion of the capture to MSI though.

Once you have your log or capture, you can convert to WIX in 2 "fast track" ways:

1. Use the dark.exe WIX MSI decompiler (if you have an MSI already)
2. Use the heat.exe WIX harvester tool (to auto-generate WIX XML for folders, registry etc..)

If you use the dark.exe tool you should get a complete WIX XML file that you can then compile again - but you should clean it up a bit (take out the UI junk, then link with WIX's detault built-in GUI etc...).

Using heat.exe is the cleaner way. You simply run the heat.exe tool against a folder, and it will create WIX XML elements for you to install those files. You will then need to put it all together in a WIX source files along with other required sections. I can provide you with a basic WIX "minimal sample" to get you going (I don't seem to be able to attach files here).