This is best done on clean install of your target OS, barebones etc, no previous runs of spark.exe
- Host OS was VirtualBoX VM of XP+SP3
- Change paths to suit your OS
- Spark.2.6.3 was used
- Download Spark.exe, do not install it
- Run AppDeploy, select “Create a MSI…” and point it at the spark.exe you just downloaded, accept the rest of the defaults
- Launch Spark.exe from within AppDeploy and run through the installer, at the end of the install do not accept the option to run Spark
- Click “Next” to create second snapshot (post-installation), I accept the rest of the defaults, create a shortcut icon, and to cut a long story short, it completes and you have a nice shiny new Spark.msi in C:\Program Files\AppDeploy\Repackager\Packages - at this point all you have done is converted the .exe to a .msi, this is the first stage in customizing your Spark client install.
- Now go to C:\Program Files\Spark\lib and use 7zip to open the spark.jar file, some of the major configuration defaults can be found at C:\Program Files\Spark\lib\spark.jar\org\jivesoftware\resource\ - see this guide by Joe (with input from Church) for more info: http://community.igniterealtime.org/docs/DOC-2126#comment-6855
- Run AppDeploy again, this time select “Build packages based on existing recipe” and point to the spark.xml file in C:\Program Files\AppDeploy\Repackager\Packages, accept the defaults and click through the wizard, this will now create a new .msi file which contains your modifications.
- Test out you new .msi on another machine and check that your changes have stuck.
AppDeploy has other options for modifying your package, I accepted the defaults as a starting point.
I’ve done this process several times now and it works fine, thanks to Joe, Church and others.