Application suite installer with automatic detection of content and configurable options

An application suite installation framework comprises an application suite installer program, an installation configuration file, and the program files that comprise the software applications. The framework allows a user to specify the software applications that are to be installed on the user's computer system, and, based on the user's input, creates the installation configuration file. The installation configuration file contains an entry for each software application which was specified by the user. The application suite installer program reads the installation configuration file to determine the installation options (i.e., the software applications) to display, and displays to the user a list of the software applications that may be installed. For each of the software applications in the list that is selected by the user, the application suite installer program installs the software application using the information, including an application installer, specified in the corresponding entry in the installation configuration file.