I went looking for a Web Part Packager install walkthrough with screenshots that a co-worker might find useful, but was unsuccessful. I did however find a bunch of links I wanted to save for myself. 

So if you don’t know about the Web Part Packager and you’re running SharePoint 2003 and developing/deploying web parts, learn about it! I understand from the folks at Blue Dog Limited that the tool’s going away for MOSS 2007, but I don’t have it verified. Given that 2007 is still in Beta, though, knowing about the Web Part Packager is probably still a good thing.

Without the Web Part Packager (which generates msi files for installation), you can do a Web Part deployment the CAB file way or the manual way.

You can automate a Web Part Packager build as part of your Visual Studio 2003 project(s), too, which is cool. I know at least two developers in my group who already do this.

Using WPPackager also installs an entry into the Add/Remove Programs box, which makes your install friendly to system administrators should they need to remove the web part. Speaking of which, here’s the Managing Web Parts on Virtual Servers section of the WSS 2003 Admin Guide.