About Application Isolation

AdminStudio 2023 | 25.0 | Repackager

Edition:This feature is available in AdminStudio Professional and Enterprise Editions.

Application isolation, which is a technique used to minimize the dependencies of an application on system components or dynamic elements, is one solution to component versioning conflicts. Isolation reduces versioning conflicts by modifying an application so it always loads the versions of components and dynamic elements with which it was originally developed and tested.

Isolation is accomplished by:

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Providing DLLs and other shared components for specific applications, and

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Placing information traditionally stored in the Registry into other files that specify the locations of these isolated components.

Application isolation provides increased stability and reliability for applications because they are unaffected by changes caused by installation and ongoing maintenance of other applications on the system.

Depending on the isolation options chosen, you can partially or totally isolate an application. When using assemblies and manifests to isolate applications, the assemblies can be updated following deployment without necessitating application reinstallation.

Reasons to Isolate Applications

You would want to isolate an application if:

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You want to resolve incompatibilities between different versions of shared components.

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You want to reduce the complexity of the installation by storing COM activation data in a manifest instead of the registry.

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You want to insulate the application from changes to shared components.

Reasons Not to Isolate an Application

You would not want to isolate an application if, following application isolation, you discover that the application no longer works because of an internal dependency on a component that has been moved during the isolation process.

Tip:Following isolation, you can use the Dynamic Dependency Scanner in InstallShield Editor to verify isolated files are loaded from a different directory.