Pros & Cons of using windows Active Setup

Question

What are the known Pros/Cons of using windows active setup for deployment? Does Microsoft recommend/support using active set up?

If your are interested, here is the context: I'm working on outlook 2003 VSTO addin.The installer for this addin creates few registry entries either in HKCU or HKLM depending on "Single User" Or "All User" installation. We are planning not to use "All User" installation since the addins installed for all users does not show up in COM AddIns list in outlook.The alternate approach is to use active set to install for single user.

Answer 1

Some time ago I published a short article comparing different methods for setting HKCU Registry entries from a Windows Installer package: Using Self-Healing To Your Advantage.

Personally, I tend to prefer using ActiveSetup, primarily because it is fast, easy, and transparent. The alternate technique (building HKCU entries into the MSI thus forcing a self-healing for each user who logs on) has the annoying progress window pop-up, and might fail if user's hit the cancel button or don't have access to the source MSI... you get the idea.

Offhand, I can't really think of any disadvantages for using the ActiveSetup technique, except perhaps that it requires a little more forethought when you're creating or updating the MSI package.