In most cases of product packaging, the automatic recording using the default settings of the reference installation on the Packaging Computer meets all the needs. This so-called automatic method of packaging monitors all changes within the registry and the file system, and the factory settings after installation of the Packager accommodate most of the recording tasks.
In the following cases the settings may need to be adapted to the environment of a particular recording.
The more comprehensive the data on the reference system, the longer it takes to check for changes. For this reason, it can be useful to exclude certain drives from the check, particularly local drives not used for installation and network drives.
On every computer, files and registry entries are changed continuously during runtime without relation to any software installation, for example, updates of the pagefile and temporarily stored Internet files. By default, these changes are not recorded. A list of excluded files is kept in the Packager and can be extended if needed.
The list of excluded files is automatically extended by files that change while a reference installation is not in progress. Most of these files are log files. To recognize most of these files, we recommend that you terminate the Packager and reboot the system after the Packager has been started for the first time and the Backup Files have been created.
In general, any directories in which temporary files are created (such as c:\temp) should not be recorded.
To ensure that the reference system remains consistent, system files are backed up, such as when a product introduces a different version of a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) file. When the product being created is installed, the original DLL file is overwritten. It is restored after the packaging process has completed. Otherwise, permanent changes are made to the reference system. By default, the Packager for Windows backs up the entire Windows directory.
This behavior can be switched off, if the Packager is used in conjunction with a virtual machine. In this case, the Packager system can be restored by switching back to a virtual machine snapshot.
In general, if the product being created makes partial changes to existing ASCII files on the Packaging Computer, only those partial changes should be reproduced when the product is distributed to and installed on a target computer.
These ASCII files must be identified so that the reference system can handle them as special cases. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, the entire ASCII file would be added to the packaged version, and the file of the same name on the target computer would be completely replaced.
All INI files are monitored for partial changes.
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