One you have configured your installation(s) as desired, and once everything passes validation, the last step in installing a package is finalizing the installation.
First of all, it is important when finalizing an installation that references assets in another installation that they should be finalized at the same time. Otherwise asset validation is likely to fail because it references an object that does not exist on your site yet. So before you finalize the installation first verify that you have selected all of the installations that you want or need to finalize.
If you are using the installation wizard, you should see an orange "Finalize" button. If you have dismissed the installation wizard, you may still finalize your installations by clicking on the "Install" button in the toolbar. If you would like the changes to take effect immediately on your live site simply click the dropdown button next to the "Install" toolbar button and click "Install and Publish".
The first thing that happens when the installation is finalized is that all of the assets in the installation are validated to make sure that nothing is committed to the site that has any errors. Assuming everything passes validation, the changes are committed to the site. Assets that need to be created on the site are created, assets that need to be updated are updated, and then assets that need to be trashed on the site are trashed. Once all of the changes are commited, the installation is marked as complete.
If you selected "Install and Publish" then all assets that were created or updated during the installation will be published directly to the live site.
If you clicked the "Finalize" button or the "Install" toolbar button, you can still publish all assets that were created or updated during the installation by clicking on the "Publish All" button that appears next to the package name in the package installation dialog.
Particularly when updating packages on an active site that receives public internet traffic, it is advisable to check your site on the preview server before you publish all assets to the live site. Even if the live site is find 9 times out of 10, you would probably rather not break the site the final 10% of the time.
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