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DanielLowe12071973's avatar
DanielLowe12071973
Copper Contributor
Aug 04, 2022

Packaging standards, MSI or MSIX?

Does anyone know the roadmap for the MSIX application packaging format? Is this format a replacement for MSI? Is there an expectation that this will become an industry standard going forward.

 

I still have thousands of MSI packages, I really like the features of MSIX but i am wondering if worth the investment in moving to MSIX.

 

  • Aditi_Narvekar's avatar
    Aditi_Narvekar
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Aug 11, 2022
    MSIX is a modern application packaging and deployment technology, and Microsoft is investing and developing MSIX. However at this time, we don't have a roadmap to publicly share out.
  • Bogdan Mitrache's avatar
    Bogdan Mitrache
    Steel Contributor
    Aug 11, 2022
    What do you mean by investment?

    Do you want to learn MSIX while creating new setup packages? I would definitely recommend this. MSIX is here to stay, and even though its adoption trend is not going crazy, this technology is here for the long term.

    Do you want to migrate thousands of working MSI packages to MSIX? I don't know if this is worth it, it depends on the problem you want to solve and its return on investment. In many cases deploying the classic MSI packages (which you have probably tested very well) is enough for some IT teams.

    • Gregory Goeppel's avatar
      Gregory Goeppel
      Brass Contributor
      Aug 11, 2022

      I'm new to MSIX but far enough in to realize MSIX is not just about deployment. For client apps it's the way to go because of it's containerization and safety. Not so sure about system level services, etc.   Bogdan Mitrache 

      • Bogdan Mitrache's avatar
        Bogdan Mitrache
        Steel Contributor
        Aug 12, 2022
        MSIX It's not optimized for system resource deployment. Per-user deployment is the core focus for MSIX. There is support for services, but it is not the best.

        Most apps don't need per-machine resources like services and drivers so MSIX should do the job should for many use cases. Plus, its support for automatic updates without writing additional code or using third-party tools is another key feature (|even though currently there are some issues with it - the MS team is working hard on it).

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