Why I'm using a MSI install package

Early on I decided I would use a MSI based installer for my product. Many would argue(and possibly rightly so) that there are easier/better installer technologies out there. However since the whole point of my company is to make life easier for Active Directory/Windows Administrators I felt I had to go with MSI. MSI packages are the easiest way to distribute applications in an Active Directory environment without add on packages such as Microsoft's SMS. I flirted with the idea of ditching MSI after a couple of hours of wading through some MSI tables in Orca, but then I thought back to all the times as a network administrator when I would think, "If only they had given me an MSI based installer this would be so much easier." Besides I had that aha moment with MSI and it doesn't seem so bad now. There will be some more MSI posts coming as it is the part of the project I'm currently working on.

I guess what I'm getting at with this post is that I need to remember who and why I'm really developing this product. I was a Network Administrator first. I must make sure I don't forget my old pain as I move forward. As a quick note my new day job is in a NDS(my older friend) environment, so forgetting some of my old Active Directory based pain is a danger I'll need to watch out for.

So until next time as you work on your projects, "Remember the pain!"

Deadlines and Milestones

So here is the entry where I talk about the deadlines and milestones I'm setting for myself. They are all realistic, but pretty much self imposed just to get things off the ground. My work schedule for my mishap is from 5:00 am until 6:30 am every morning. Well it is supposed to be every morning, but things happen. So as punishment for myself I'll be added an entry to the blog letting everyone know anytime I fail to get up and work. I also get a little time between 10:00 pm and 12:00 am most days, but not on my development machine so I mostly work on the webpage layout and content during that time. So with that time schedule things have been moving pretty slowly so far, I'm hoping to kick things into a higher gear so here is my schedule let us see if I stick to it.

I'll provide more detail for these milestones in the future

December 15 - Installer completed and tested on all supported platforms.
December 23 - Send out beta copies of product
December 31 - Website design and content complete. This includes a free article or two on various Active Directory topics.
January 7 - Setup webhosting and upload site. Submit to search engines
January 13 - 1.0 done including any bug fixes or changes from the beta
January 15 - Setup Credit Card processor. I'm planning on using plimus.com right now
January 23 - Launch!!!!
January 30 - Setup Google AdWords campaign

That's the schedule right now. I'm sure it will change, but at least I now have something to judge my progress.

Let's get started

Welcome to Active Directory mISV. You may have noticed that I don't mention my company or product name in my profile. Since I haven't registered the domain names yet, and like the stereotypical startup I'm paranoid. I will announce the names when I register the domains. This should happen very soon(more on this in my next post).

So what kind of products am I developing? Well from the title of the blog I'm guessing you have figured out it has something to do with Microsoft's Active Directory. The first product(to be revealed soon) is just a small little utility that I have encountered a need for in my consulting work. This first product is feature complete and just needs a little more testing, plus completion of an installer. I'll talk about my timeline and milestones for the next 3 months in my next post.

If I bore you with any posts in this blog let me know through the comments and I'll try and modify the content a bit. I'm hoping this blog can help keep me on track with my effort as well as help others by watching the successes(hopefully) and mistakes(I'm sure there will be some) I make along the way.

I do plan to move this blog to my own site once my hosting is up and running, so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks in advance for all your "constructive" comments.