Wise Package Studio 8

Oh man, what a disappointment.. Been waiting for a new release or at least a SP4 for WPS 7 for a year or more, at long last Symantec decides to release WPS 8 and what do we get? A couple of hot fixes and that’s basically it ;(.

For people who are considering upgrading from WPS 7 SP3 to WPS 8, don't do it unless you don't have anything else to spend your money on.

Only positive thing to say about the release of WPS 8 is that it’s still on the market, been considering other MSI package tools the last couple of months until the announcement of WPS 8 came around.

For those MSI developers who are interested in what’s new in WPS 8, ill sum it up here (Source: https://kb.altiris.com/display/1/index.asp?c=&cpc=&cid=&cat=&catURL=&r=0.5227472 ):

• Start menu shortcuts. The Start menu shortcuts for Wise Package Studio are in a Symantec folder instead of an Altiris folder.
• SetupCapture. SetupCapture now captures assembly information.
• Check for Updates. The Check for Updates option has been removed from the Help menu and from the General tab in the Workbench Preferences dialog box.
• 20583: If you used SetupCapture to capture an application that contains a service, the service was not stopped and deleted when the application was uninstalled. This issue has been resolved.
• 41988: If you captured a legacy EXE that contained a REG_MULTI_SZ key, the entire key was added to the installation instead of just the values that changed. When the installation was uninstalled, the entire key was removed, instead of just the values that were added. This issue has been resolved.
• Windows Installer Runtime 4.5 support. On the Systems Requirements page, you can select 4.5 as the minimum Windows Installer Runtime Version requirement.
• Internet Explorer 8.0. On the Systems Requirements page, you can select IE Version 8.0 as a minimum system requirement.
• CustomAction table. An ExtendedType column has been added to the CustomAction table. This column was required for Windows Installer 4.5.
• Windows Installer SDK Help. The Windows Installer SDK Help has been updated to version 4.5.
• Files page. On the Files page, if you added a folder to Destination Computer, an empty, unnamed folder was created above the folder that you added. This issue has been resolved.
• Wise Custom Actions. The WiseVerifyUser custom action has been added to the topic Wise Custom actions.
• 41643: On the Files Page, you can no longer add files to the All Users folder by double-clicking the files or dragging and dropping them. This prevents placing files in the All Users folder where the file's path cannot be correctly resolved.
• 43770: If you use the Firewall Exceptions page to add applications to the Windows Firewall exception list, the installation now functions correctly in Maintenance Mode. If a user modifies the installation and then uninstalls it, the exceptions are removed. If a user uses the installation's Modify mode to install a second feature that contains Firewall Exceptions, the exceptions are created.
• 43820: In Wise Package Studio 7.0 SP3, if you opened a .WSI file that previously had the option "Generate COM interop registry keys for .NET Assembly" checked on the Self-registration tab of the File Details dialog box, the option would be disabled. This issue has been resolved.

These so called “changes” in WPS 8 looks more like a hotfix/ServicePack than a new major version of the product… Its beyond my imagination that anyone would release a bunch of fixes as a new major version. As a long time user of Wise Package Studio (started using WPS back in 2004). This is the first time I’ve had the feeling that Wise (Symantec) only cares for $$$.

A huge disappointment indeed...