InstallAware

Guys,

I've started a new job this week. The major project that's built and ready for installation uses mostly manual file copies and ClickOnce functionality. I'm going to motivate we get a licence for IA as we all know that's best. What I want to do though is motivate it properly and present reasons why IA is better than ClickOnce. I had a similar situation a couple of years ago when I had to give reasons why IA is better than schhh-you-know-what. IA won the day then but I don't really know much about ClickOnce to say why IA is preferable. I know it is, but I'm darned if I can give a lucid argument. Can someone give me some things to consider?

Dear Peter,

Congratulations on your new job!
Its actually funny you are referring to ClickOnce - we have been looking at that technology for a while now and considering whether to incorporate it as an InstallAware deployment.
In fact, ClickOnce and InstallAware are not really comparable. ClickOnce is a term that describes the way a CLR application is deployed. With ClickOnce, applications are not only deployed via webpages (or other media forms) in one click, but are also managed, installed, and upgraded very differently from normal applications. InstallAware is something else - it is a setup authoring tool that allows great flexibility and customization to your setups. What exactly is your company using ClickOnce for?

Thanks Aviv. It's been a constructive first week and I've enjoyed it. I was reviewing what I discussed with the outgoing developer and I think I misquoted what I thought was used. We had discussed ClickOnce but on reflection the project is built using that somewhat gauche packaging setup wizard you get with VS. My question has now been answered by default!