Differences between .MSI and .EXE files
Tactical Software offers two file types to install the client products: MSI and EXE files.
Updating Using EXE Files
EXE files are the preferred method for installing our software, as they are able to detect an existing version of the software and offer the user the option of uninstalling the existing product. MSI files do not have this ability and will instruct the user to use the Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel to remove the existing product first.
In many situations, the EXE packaging combined with pre-configured command-line options would be sufficiently error-proof, especially if /qb is used. The /qb option has the often-desirable effect of eliminating dialogs from the GUI that enable the user to override how the product is installed.
The only problem with using the EXE arises when you need to deploy an unattended installation/upgrade. There is no way to instruct the EXE to uninstall the existing version without first prompting the user.
Updating using MSI files
www.tacticalsoftware.com/support/tech-no...-install-msi-exe.htm
This material is referenced specifically for Tactical Softwares own software.
MSI installations are more commonly used for installation through Group Policy. It has the software packaged in such a way that it can be deployed by pushing it out or to provide the user the ability to install the application should they use it (through add/remove programs or if setup correctly, if they try to open a file that uses that specific application).
EXE installations are usually performed through someone running the setup file for the application and then several prompts on how its installed is then presented. You can get some setup programs to use command line parrameters to try and pre-define answers to the specific questions.
MSI's can usually be used to also upgrade olderversions of software and depending on how the MSI is created, it can remove the older versions first before installing the newer one, this all depends on how the MSI is first created.
Click
here
for details on the MSI within Group Policies.
Cheers
