Copying a Windows Installer Enabled Package

One of the key advantages of using HPCA products to manage Windows Installer-enabled applications is the ability to specify variants of the software package, and make those variants available to targeted users.

When you use the advanced capabilities of HPCA, you have to create only one comprehensive AIP, and publish it to the CSDB. All variant sets of features are encapsulated in individual packages in the CSDB.

You can create a new variant by making a copy of an existing package, and then editing it to meet the new variant's unique requirements, as described in the following procedure.

To make a new variant set of features:

  1. Right-click the Application Packages instance and select Copy Package from the shortcut menu.
    You will get a message stating that copying a package instance will result in a duplication of all the package's component instances, and that this may take a while.
  2. Select Yes to continue the Copy Package function.
    or
    Select No to cancel the Copy Package function.
    Copying the package copies the package instance and all of the component class instances that belong to the package instance. The new package is a complete copy of the original. This operation maintains the integrity of the CSDB, because each package retains control over its own components.
  3. In the Copy Package and Components dialog box, type the name for the newer copied package.
  4. Click OK to continue. The Configuration Server takes a few moments to copy the package.
  5. When the newly copied package appears in the HPCA Administrator CSDB Editor’s tree view, right-click the MSIFEATS instance beneath the package and select Feature Set Editor from the shortcut menu. The MSI Feature Set Editor opens.
  6. Set the properties of the applications that should not be deployed to Ignore.
  7. Click Save & Exit, and the feature set for the package is updated. You can now connect this package to the appropriate policy instances such as USER, DEPT, WORKGRP, to deploy and manage a single feature as a stand-alone application.


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