Review: Teksoft AirWizard

Posted by: tjchan on Apr 02 2007 - 1,403 views

Hard Resetting a device is not a pleasant step for anyone. AirWizard by Teksoft, makes this process much more manageable. It is a unique Desktop PC tool that creates over-the-air installers (the ability to install a program without the need of ActiveSync) as well as desktop installers for your programs! With AirWizard, you can take several CAB files, a splash image, a read me text file with instructions and create a compressed, self extracting installer to be run directly on your Pocket PC or Smartphone.

So, is this the ideal utility for those painful times where your mobile device needs a memory wipe? Come and see!

 

Installation and Registration:

Installation of AirWizard is simple - just download and run the windows installer. Registration can only be done with the full version as the demo version cannot be unlocked.

To register, just click on the big "Unlock" button that’s next to the "Back" and "Next" buttons and enter in the registration info. Upon successful registration, you’ll see the registration info displayed. The "Unlock" button will not disappear even when the program is registered.

Overview: Re-installing each and every program onto mobile devices can be an excruciating task. Whether it means installing a fresh copy or updating/upgrading existing applications to the latest version and depending on the number of devices, it can take from around 20-30 minutes to fully reload a single device, to hour or even days when tens and hundreds of devices need software installed. With Teksoft’s AirWizard, one can have the peace of mind of simply creating a single easy to use unified installer that works for all possible Windows Mobile devices including SmartPhones. Best of all a unified installer can be created in 3 easy steps.

Building the Installer

• Select options and filters.
• Select CABS and filters for those CABS.
• Build!

	Here we select the project name, which files to use for the EULA, read me, and splash screen (or none by leaving those boxes unchecked), and options such as enabling advance settings and creating an installer that is to be copied to a removable storage card.
	Now we add the CABs and select the various filters and conditions of whether or not to install the CAB based on platform and OS settings. The up and down buttons determine the order in which the CABs will be installed.
	Now we just click Build to "build" the file. If "Deploy Desktop Installer when done" or "Deploy Mobile Installer when done" are checked, then it will launch the respective installer upon build completion.

Options and Filters

EULA (End User License Agreement) and Readme for Created Installers: AirWizard allows the user to create an EULA that the user can view prior to installation of selected CABs. It can also display a readme file upon installation completion. AirWizard is unique in that it can utilize and display HTML files in addition to standard TXT files.

Filters: Just like other over-the-air install creators, AirWizard comes with the ability to create conditions of whether or not to install software based on the equipment detected. One filter set that is unique to AirWizard is the ability to filter by device type and operating system (Pocket PC/SmartPhone and WM2002/2003/2003SE/WM5). AirWizard also sports the standard filter for processor type (Intel, TI, and Samsung). This is useful for those times when one may decide that they want to have a single installer for a group of devices or OS platforms.

One such example is software designed for WM5 and 2003 may at times require a different CAB installer. Now the two can be bundled and a single installer created so the end user does not need to worry about having run the correct CAB as AirWizard’s filters would have made the appropriate choice.

Enable Advance Settings: These allow the user (upon runtime of the created installer) to choose advance options such as selecting an alternate install path, resuming an install upon a soft reset (some programs require a soft reset to continue), silent install, and soft resetting a device after the AirWizard installer completes.

• Override install path: This allows the user to select where to install the program if they want it installed to a different place other than the default location that’s defined in the CAB file.
• Resume install on reset: This creates a shortcut to resume the installer should one of the installed CABs require a soft reset to complete setup.
• Reset when installer finishes: This will cause your device to perform a soft reset when all install processes are complete.
• Silent install: This will cause the installer to say "Yes" to any further user prompts automatically thereby ending the need for any more user interaction for the remainder of the install.
• Enable debug-log output: Created a detailed log which can be used later for troubleshooting.

It is important to note that a current bug (which I’m told will be squashed in the next update) that makes the AirWizard installer have problems if it has to continue with an installation after a soft reset. This bug involves the name of the created project / setupfile. (e.g. "Mass Install.exe" would cause problems whereas "MassInstall" or "Mass_Install" would be fine). If the created installer has a space in the filename, then the installer would fail to resume upon the soft reset, and an invalid shortcut from Windows/Startup would have to be manually deleted.

Splash Screen: JPG, BMP, and PNG image files can be used for a splash screen. Be careful of what kind of image is used as the text for the splash screen is black. The color of this text as well as the text cannot be changed and can result in some rather…umm…unique results.

Desktop Installers: AirWizard allows for the creation of desktop installers. The created installer is a desktop run application that uses ActiveSync to transfer the mobile installer to the device. After completion of the transfer, the mobile installer will be launched on the mobile device.

Mobile Installers: Mobile installers are EXEs that only the mobile device can run. This installation file is the whole reason for getting AirWizard. Let’s run through the install process. One first sees the splash screen, then the EULA is displayed, then advanced options which is called "Preferences" (if selected during installer creation), then the pre-installation screen, then the CAB install screen, and finally the readme is displayed.

In my specific example I just tossed together elements from various sources - the splashscreen was from a photo that I had , the EULA was from a game called CheboMan, the CAB file was for Spb Pocket Plus, and the readme file was from smartFlash. Wrap that all up and let’s see it run on the Dell Axim x51v!

Running the Created Mobile Installer - 5 Steps to Getting Your Software Installed

• Splash screen
• View EULA
• Preferences
• Install CABs
• View Read me

	We begin with the splash screen and await the user to click "Start".
	This is the End User License Agreement. Notice that it doesn’t have anything readable about having to accept the agreement at all. Perhaps the "Next" button should read "I Agree".
	This is the optional Preferences screen that is shown if "Enable Advance Settings" was selected during AirWizard installer creation.
	The worst part about this installer is that it gives no indication of what it’s doing and just shows a white screen while it unpacks the actual CAB. Letting my mom use the installer, she totally skipped over the entire install by prematurely clicking the "Finish" button. In another test where multiple smaller CAB installations were present, this problem did not appear so it seems to be CAB size dependent for the amount of time between this screen and the next. In any case, this is still a serious design flaw.
	Finally after over 10 seconds, AirWizard’s mobile installer lets me know it’s doing something…
	Ahh, finally the CAB install. If multiple CAB files were present (this example only shows the use of 1 CAB), each one would be installed in order depending on what filters were set.
	Finally, the last thing is shown, the Read Me file.

Conclusion: TekSoft AirWizard in its current state lacks polish and has some serious bugs that need to be squashed. It does, however, have high potential as it is currently the only GUI (Graphical User Interface) product on the market that allows for multiple CAB files, HTML support for its EULAs and Read Me files, and works on a non-NT PC environment. TekSoft claims that AirWizard is geared towards all users especially those in the corporate setting. This program would work well in the corporate environment due to the fact that with the filters, the unified installer would work for every mobile device. For the standard user now, however, Spb Backup or Sprite Backup, both which cost significantly less, are still the best solutions for a hard reset as software registrations are saved and can be restored with ease. TekSoft is currently planning a "home user" version of this program which will cost less. I look forward to see what updates and enhancements will be made to AirWizard in the future.

Vital Statistics:

Name: AirWizard
Version: 1.0.002
Supported Platform: Windows 9X/2000/XP/2003 , Pocket PC 2002-2005 , Smartphone 2002-2005
Supported Screen Size: 240×240 , 320×320, 480×480, QVGA (320×240) , VGA (640×480)
Developer: TekSoft
Available From: TekSoft
Price: $86 USD Standard Price ($60 USD Promotional Pricing)
Demo: Unlimited use for Single CAB installers.

Technorati Tags: TekSoft, AirWizard, Over-the-Air, Installer, Creator, Developer, Tools, Just Another Mobile Monday

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