2026-02-23 01:04 UTC
@deobald Yes, absolutely avoid MSI at all costs in 2026 *unless* you are targeting a corporate environment that specifically mandates it. Use NSIS, InnoSetup or one of the Windows package managers like Chocolatery instead. If your app can be sandboxed and work with Microsoft store restrictions, you can try MSIX too (although I didn't play with that).
MSI is *not* a package format like dpkg/rpm, and not a "copy this file there" installer, that's a mistake I made initially...
Replies (1)
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@matk@mastodon.social 2026-02-23 01:07
@deobald ...it instead is a structured database for installations, so instead of "copy this file now", MSI says "this file belongs to this component, which satisfies this feature" - and the engine then decides when and how to act. Just renaming a file is hell unless you preplanned that, and MSI pushes a crazy amount of mental load onto the developer, instead of figuring things out by itself. Without WiX it would be insanity, but even with it it's awful to use...