Software deployment tools

In an enterprise there are many ways to deploy new software. With Windows 2000 server and client Microsoft made a new standard with the Windows Installer and Group Policy. Windows Installer (aka. Microsoft Installer) is a defined way to install applications on a computer and the group policy can be used to distribute applications to several computers at the same time.

Windows Installer

With Windows Installer you get files with several extensions. The most important extensions are;

Extension	Use
.msi	This is an application ready for installation on a target computer.
.mst	This is a transform file. A transform basically allows you to change the behavior of an MSI file without actually changing the MSI file.
.msp	Patch file - in case of big installations you can distribute patches instead of new installations.
.msm	Merge module. A vendor can distribute common components in a merge module so other vendors can distribute the common component as part of their own installation - and still maintain integrity for the common component. Examples are the Visual Basic runtime.

Windows Installer came with Windows 2000 and was ported back to Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME.

There are many tools to create MSI files. Read more here.

Deployment tools

I do not intend to talk much about the different tools here. Just list them up.

Tool	Comment
Specops Deploy	Group policy distribution on steroids. A simple tool and extends your group policy deployment with reporting and control. Not to expensive from what I can see.
Novell ZENworks	We "grown up" people remember Novell as the creators of Netware - for its time the best network operating system. They also created some other good software, like ZENWorks that was the best deployment tool that existed for Netware environments. Now that Netware is dead they have removed all dependencies to Netware and now can run within a Windows only environment. Can create proprietary distributions or distribute/create MSI files.
System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM)	Microsoft also have a tool for software deployment. This tool is loaded with features, not cheap and hard to deploy. But it will work for you when you have it up and running.
Group Policy