Rating: 
Summary: A Good Installer Book
Review: I've used InstallShield products for about three years now, and recently started using ISWI to package software - and became completely lost! As such, I turned to this book for help.The book first moves you through the Win 2000 deployment model and walks you constructing an Installer product using the Microsoft MSI SDK - which works wonders and really solidifies an understanding of the MSI data model and methodology. The book then drills down and explains, part by part, the workings of ISWI nicely...Although it sometime reads more like an encyclopedia than what I really look for in a tech book. The only caveats is many grammer issues sprinkled through the book and screenshots that refer to an old version (although it does incite a sort of scavendar-hunt mentality that actually HELPS learning the product). However, the core of the book is solid and informative...if you have to work with ISWI - this book should definitely be in your reading list for the near future.
Rating: 
Summary: Does anyone remember CalvinBall?
Review: If a dyslexic writer wrote a treatise on the U.S. tax code, it would read like this book. My advice is that if you're an experienced programmer and the boss ever comes to you and asks if you'd take over the Installshield duties from the last person who (inexplicably) is no longer going to handle them, don't spend your money on this book -- put it directly into a new resume or job-hunting service. PS -- CalvinBall was the favorite game of Calvin, from comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, in which Calvin simply did whatever he wanted, and pronounced that as the rules as he went.
Rating:
Summary: A good book about a complex topic
Review: If you want to understand Windows Installer in detail this book is a very good choice. Be aware that it's not easy reading because the Microsofts Installer is nothing you understand on the fly. It's also not bad to have some basic programming knowledge to understand the code samples (written in C++ and VBScript) and to have an idea about Windows 2000 and Active Directory. One thing the book doesn't cover is the repackager from Installshield (Spy). Specially for admins, this is a very important tool and because it seems to me that the Spy is quiet buggy I would have been glad if I had got some help in handling it.
Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: The author does a great job of further confusing an already complex software product. The author's idea of instruction involves direct manipulation of data files within the MSI package. Starting in chapter 5, the author begins to discuss the IDE and how to use the software, but still refers to direct manipulation of data files. Save your money!!
Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: The author does a great job of further confusing an already complex software product. The author's idea of instruction involves direct manipulation of data files within the MSI package. Starting in chapter 5, the author begins to discuss the IDE and how to use the software, but still refers to direct manipulation of data files. Save your money!!
Rating:
Summary: This book stinks...
Review: The book is poorly presented and organized. The author keeps refering to other chapters or references to make his point. Out of the 20 chapters, there are less than 10 examples. Most of the them are unclear, lengthy, and unreproducible. The CD-ROM is useless, except for those demo programs. The writing is highly abstract. The author seems to assume the readers can read his mind. It is not worth ... Users may be better off to get help from the HOWTO topics....
Rating:
Summary: Stinks!
Review: The whole idea of InstallShield Developer is to make it easier to write installations using the Windows Installer. Throughout the book the author keeps referring to the installer database, as if you wanted to directly modify the installer database instead of using a user friendly IDE (which is the whole point with using a program like InstallShield Developer). You'll be better of reading the InstallShield help files. Not recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Senior Software Engineer - Citrix Systems
Review: This book is a MUST for anyone developing MSI installation packages professionally. Although it discusses InstallShield of Windows Installer version 1.5 and the current version is 2.02, the translation to the new version is not a problem. The best part of the book is the explanation of the MSI architecture. It is much easier to comprehend than the MSDN documentation. I was slightly annoyed by the number of typographical errors which occur at the rate of about once every three pages in the early chapters.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book, but...
Review: This book is very good. Anything (with the exception I note below) I needed regarding this product, I could find in this book. I had, however, from the publisher's calling it "comprehensive," hoped for documentation of the Automation Interface. There is no significant coverage of this important interface to this product.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Badest IT Books I've read (or tried to read)
Review: This is just about the only book on Installshield one can find. That is the reason why I bought it. I was, well, disappointed.
This ain't a book to teach one how to use Installshield, it reads more like a manual. Why doesn't the author (or some other
authors) write a book with 20-30 simple examples to show how this thing works? That way I can get the hang of it in one week.
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