What is Active setup: Active setup is a process that runs automatically during the login . It is mainly used to complete specific run once setup tasks for each user as they log in to a given machine after an active setup based package is installed. Do not confuse that active setup is only used when user entries are there. it can be used even if there are other changes which needs to be made when any user logs in. It can be regarding placing a file somewhere, or running a script while anyone logs in. In the stubpath value such scripts are written. So stubpath does not necessarily mean msiexec /fpu. It can be anything which you want to run. When to use Active Setup: 1. Active Setup is used when the application requires user based components such as HKCU registries and/or Configuration files to run, But the application has no Advertised shortcuts or Entry points. 2. Most common examples are Office Addins. These ...
This blog describes some of the packaging standards. Also contains methods to silently install different applications or handling their configuration for mass deployements.