Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Jeff A Zimniewicz

Phillip J Marino

Crista Johnson

Erin Marie Bourke-Dunphy

Ryan M Helgeson

Gary Paolo Raden

Paul Fitzgerald

William M Nelson

Brian G Strully

A software tool and method are provided for selectively installing service packs in a computer system according to dependency information and whether or not an upgrade to an application is scheduled. The method comprises prompting a user for desired setup information and installing the service pack associated with an existing application if the application requires the service pack and if the desired setup information indicates that an upgrade component corresponding to the application is not to be installed. In addition, the service pack is installed if the upgrade component is to be installed and if the service pack is required for upgrading the application.

Method and software tools for intelligent service pack installation

The present invention provides a system and method to facilitate installation and/or removal of components in which one of the components is a shared component. The components are installed based on a valid order, such that shared components are installed after other components have been installed. According to one aspect, one or more properties associated with a shared component may be manipulated to facilitate installation and/or removal of components, including the shared component and dependent components.

System and method to facilitate installation and/or removal of components

A system and method are presented for a suite integration toolkit (SIT) allowing for the provision and display of a rich set of installation actions. The user interface (UI) provides a list box interface having pull down menus for the display and selection of component defined installation actions. Preferably the SIT is used to install a suite of applications having multiple components and sub-components. These components and sub-components are displayed with the install action selected and disk space required displayed. The UI also provides a summation of the required disk space of only those components that will actually be installed, taking into consideration and excluding from the summation required components that are already installed. An interface method is implemented by each of the components to expose a method to allow the SIT to query the component for its available installation actions and results.

System and method of providing multiple installation actions

A system and method are presented for a suite integration toolkit (SIT) allowing for the provision and display of a rich set of installation actions. The user interface (UI) provides a list box interface having pull down menus for the display and selection of component defined installation actions. Preferably the SIT is used to install a suite of applications having multiple components and sub-components. These components and sub-components are displayed with the install action selected and the disk space required displayed. The UI also provides a summation of the required disk space of only those components that will actually be installed, taking into consideration and excluding from the summation required components that are already installed. An interface method is implemented by each of the components to expose a method to allow the SIT to query the component for its available installation actions and results.

The present invention relates to systems and methods to generate accounts on a client when joining the client to a domain while preserving user profiles that were generated prior to joining the client. In general, a user with an account on a client can customize the account, wherein the customization can be saved in an associated profile. The client can employ the user profile when the user logs on in order to return the customization to the user. The present invention provides a novel approach to retain a user's existing user profile when joining the client via mapping the user's existing account to the account that will be generated, and then automatically migrating the user's profile to the generated account during joining the client. The foregoing can provide reduced client setup time, improved setup efficiency, reduced setup cost, and mitigation of severing customization from a user's account.

Systems and methods to migrate a user profile when joining a client to a server and/or domain

Information is acquired indicative of a location scenario where a plurality of software components are to be installed. The location scenario is employed to configure the software components, such as by setting at least some of the components as default components to facilitate selection and/or configuration of the software components during a setup process. The location scenario is further employed to configure selected components to have functionality based on the location scenario.

Location-based scenarios to facilitate selection of system configuration

An interface is provided for identifying which components a user desires to install on one or more computers. An installation procedure is determined based on dependency requirements for components that are selected for installation. The installation procedure may describe a desired order and/or sequence for installing selected application and/or service components.

System and method to facilitate installation of components across one or more computers

Presented is a system and a method for installing a suite of application programs that uses a common structure of a wizard page returned from a procedure exported from a dynamic link library (DLL) or executable (EXE) file. In this way, component writers are able to write their UI in a separate DLL or executable (EXE) file for their component. This improves portability of the UI as the writers are now able to take this file and copy it from version to version without needing to rewrite or port the code in any way. Further, the system and method allow for the usage of a number of default or template UI screens. Modification of the display order, including insertion and deletion of UI screens as well as reordering of the screens is also provided by the system and method of the invention. This functionality is provided through a textural setup database file that includes a textural listing of the UI screens to be utilized. A suite integration toolkit (SIT) utilizes this text file to coordinate the UI display.

System and method of providing replaceable and extensible user interface for the installation of a suite of applications

A system and method are presented for a suite integration toolkit (SIT) allowing for the provision and display of a rich set of installation actions. The user interface (UI) provides a list box interface having pull down menus for the display and selection of component defined installation actions. Preferably the SIT is used to install a suite of applications having multiple components and sub-components. These components and sub-components are displayed in a tree structure in the UI with the install action selected and the disk space required displayed. Differential coloring, shading, and text display are all used to enrich the understanding of the installation. The UI also provides a summation of the required disk space of only those components that will actually be installed, taking into consideration and excluding from the summation required components that are already installed. An interface method is implemented by each of the components to expose a method to allow the SIT to query the component for its available installation actions and results. This allows maximum flexibility in the definition and provision of the install actions.

A multiple stage installation system for the installation and setup of a suite of applications segregates and organizes the preparation, installation, clean up, optimization, etc. into functional groupings that define the multiple stages of the installation process. These functional groupings include actions to be performed on behalf of and to any and all of the applications to be installed. While different stages may be defined, the system preferably includes a pre-install phase, an install phase, and a post-install phase during which different functional activities are performed. An optimization phase may also be included to allow optimization of applications that have already been installed. In a preferred embodiment, the applications to be installed implement a COM interface that contains a method for each stage supported. The core installation system determines the installation order for the applications, acquires the COM interface from the application, and for each install stage, calls the appropriate method on that interface. Each application's method for a given stage is called before any methods of any applications for the next stage.

System and method of multiple-stage installation of a suite of applications

A method and system for installing software on a computer prepares a computer system for the installation of a suite having a plurality of components. A setup program queries each component to determine which of the components is a prerequisite to the installation of the suite and which is a prerequisite for installation in a particular scenario. The setup program installs those components that are determined to be suite or scenario prerequisites on the computer system. The setup program creates a baseline installation image containing the installed components as well as the data elements required to complete the installation of the suite.

Method and system for installing software on a computer system

Presented is a system and method for creating, extending, or otherwise modifying an application program suite. Specifically, by writing setup database files for each individual application to be included in a suite in accordance with the data structure required by the Suite Integration Toolkit (SIT), these applications may be combined to form, or added to, a suite. Components for a suite are listed in several sections of the setup database file. Since this list is not set to any fixed number of components, the list can be changed at any time before setup.exe is run. Once setup.exe is run, the file is parsed for the information in the relevant sections. The data in these fields is used without any understanding of the specifics of the suite, which allows the SIT engine/technology to be ignorant of the specifics of the suite. As a result, the suite owner/writer is afforded the maximum flexibility in creating or modifying a suite of applications. In addition to integrating the applications into a suite thereby allowing a single seamless install/setup, the SIT engine of the instant invention also provides proper dependency checking and error recovery. During the installation of the suite, the SIT engine determines the superset of information needed by each application for acquisition from the user. If a single application requires different information for a particular field than that required by the other programs, a separate entry for that particular program will be generated and will supply that information only to that particular program.

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Jeff A Zimniewicz