Improved Installation Wizards

Posted by Mike Snyder on December 20, 2005  |  Comments (0)

One of the great new improvements in Microsoft CRM 3.0 is the addition and/or enhancements related to wizards that help you install the product. Microsoft CRM 1.2 included installation wizards of course, but the 3.0 wizards do more than just allow you accept a license agreement and click "Next". The install wizards run through a series of pre-requisite checks to make sure everything will install smoothly. If there is a potential problem, the installation wizards warn you and tell you to how resolve the issue.

Today I was installing the Microsoft CRM client for Outlook on a demo computer so I grabbed some screenshots to show everyone what the install wizard for the Outlook client looks like:

Microsoft CRM 3.0 checks pre-reqs and warns that Outlook is open

Re-ran the wizard after closing Outlook. All systems go!

Microsoft CRM 3.0 client for Outlook installs with no problems.

This same type of wizard installation applies to various areas of the application, which will save project managers and network administrators tons of time because it checks for problems BEFORE the install...instead of finding problems after you install and try to run the application.