Windows Application Installation Improves

Microsoft has further improved Windows to address the difficulty many business customers have with distributing and installing “thick”-client applications. A new version of the Windows Installer service provides support for new installation tasks, and the .NET Framework and improvements to the way shared components are supported in Windows XP ease “DLL Hell” issues created during application installation. However, application installation is still not easy, and the so-called XCOPY deployment promised for applications that run under the .NET Framework still has limitations that might prevent it from being a practical means of deploying and installing client-side applications.

This article deals solely with client-side software installation; improvements to Microsoft’s software distribution products and server-based application installation are not covered. Also, this article covers application installation only; none of the new features in Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 (formerly known as Windows .NET Server 2003) affects the way that components or patches for operating-systems (OSs) get installed.