FreeMind MSI Deployment

Guide for deploying Freemind on a network via Group Policies

Prepare FreeMind Files

Download FreeMind-Windows-Installer-1.0.1-max.exe from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/freemind/FreeMind-Windows-Installer-1.0.1-max.exe?download 

Wrap FreeMind installer in MSI file method

If you wish to deploy the program as-is, I've found it's easiest to wrap this .exe installer in an MSI file using MSI Wrapper. FreeMind-Windows-Installer-1.0.1-max.exe is an packaged with Inno Setup; the standard /VERYSILENT switch works. MSI Wrapper is pretty straight-forward to use, here's a summary of the steps I used. Please leave me a comment below if you want further details:

1. Install FreeMind on your workstation. You'll need it installed for MSI Wrapper to find some of it's properties.
2. Start MSI Wrapper. On the welcome screen click Next.
3. In the Setup Executable Input File Name field, choose the downloaded FreeMind-Windows-Installer-1.0.1-max.exe
4. Click in the MSI Output File Name field to populate it with the default MSI path and file name. Click Next
5. I change the Security context to Windows Installer, and change the Elevation field to Always elevate. Click Next.
6. In the Application ID field, click lookup and choose the FreeMind app id. Create a new Upgrade Code. Click Next.
7. On the Properties screen that appears, either change these to suit, or click Next. On the More Properties screen click Next.
8. On the Parameters screen, in the Install Arguments field and the Uninstall Arguments field, enter /VERYSILENT Click Next.
9. On the Actions screen, click Next.
10. On the Summary screen, click Build

Repackage with Smart Packager Method

FreeMind includes a File Browser mode that allows users to open any folder on the computer from within the app. This file browser bypasses group policy settings that restrict access to certain drives. The only way I've found to permanently block access to the file browser mode is to remove that feature from the freemind.properties file inside the freemind.jar file.

Extract FreeMind files from the installer

Being built with InnoSetup, you can extract files from the installer using innounp from http://innounp.sourceforge.net/. Once extracted, open the {app}\lib folder from the extracted files. Change the name of the freemind.jar file to freemind.zip and open it up. Open the file freemind.properties and change the line that reads: 

modes_since_0_8_0 = freemind.modes.browsemode.BrowseMode,Browse,freemind.modes.mindmapmode.MindMapMode,MindMap,freemind.modes.filemode.FileMode,File

to

modes_since_0_8_0 = freemind.modes.mindmapmode.MindMapMode,MindMap

Save the file, and change the filename from freemind.zip back to freemind.jar

Create a new MSI from the modified files

Now that you have updated the properties file to no longer allow the file browser, you can package the {app} folder into a new MSI package for deployment. In this guide, I used Smart Packager to create a new MSI.

Create a new package in Smart Packager. Rename the {app} folder to FreeMind and add it to the file section of your new package

Add a Start Menu shortcut using the Shortcuts section

 Save your new MSI file. I've never had much luck adding reg key entries with Smart Packager, so I've opted to use Orca to add them instead

Deploy FreeMind using Group Policies

Once you are done adding the reg keys to the msi, copy the .msi to your remote install share and deploy using Group Policies.