Unicorns via Horses, Horns and Glue: Automated Software Deployment in Windows

Unlike many versions of Linux, Windows doesn't have a built-in application deployment mechanism like Apt or Yum. There are excellent commercial packages available, but they can be expensive. Explore how to create free, automated, silent MSI and EXE installers for Windows that can be deployed through Active Directory or PStools.

I'll talk about the challenges of creating these using VBScript, Autoit and other software and scripting languages, strategies used to create silent installers for a wide variety of commonly used applications, and the challenges going forward in keeping up with new installation and security technologies.