Windows Installer SDK

Microsoft Windows Installer is a free piece of software which allows software on Windows systems to be installed, maintained and removed. Microsoft has stated that it wants third parties to use Windows Installer for installation frameworks, so they work properly with other installers. The current version of Microsoft Windows Installer is an alternative to older versions such as InstallShield and NSIS.

Features

There are many different reasons to download Microsoft Windows Installer. Some new recent features of Microsoft Windows Installer include multiple package transaction and the ability to update supersedence resiliency. Other features include custom action execution on update uninstall, which allows you create a custom action so when an update is uninstalled, the custom action is called. Shared component patching resiliency during uninstall ensures that the most recent version of a component is available to all the products. Another great feature, embedded UI handler, enables you to embed a customer user interface handler into Microsoft Windows Installer.
Embedded chainer allows you to enable install-on-demand events, the repair events, and the uninstall events across multiple packages, which make it a worthwhile feature. Microsoft Windows Installer enables applications to run straight from a network share; eliminating the need for a local copy. It can also restore damaged or deleted files, application shortcuts and registry entries, allow applications to avoid hard coded file paths, and resolve component identifiers into paths. Microsoft Windows Installer supports per-user installation of applications, making it very flexible.

Comparison

Since Microsoft Windows Installer runs only on Windows computers, it is hard to compare it to other software, since similar programs will be for different operating systems. Installer for Mac computers seems to carry out much of the same activity, but it does not appear to have as many useful features; Microsoft Windows Installer is easy to use, and comes with lots of great features.

Conclusion

Overall, it is clear that Microsoft Windows Installer is an easy to use piece of software, and it definitely makes sense to use it if you have a Windows computer. If there was similar installation software for Windows, then Microsoft Windows Installer would definitely give it a run for its money.