Installer fun
-
Okay, asking for a bit of advice. The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment, and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a packaging tool. Been using the faithful INNO setup for years, but, sadly, it will probably never be ported to create MSI's as it would mean a rewrite for the author. Any suggestions? I just want something thats easy to use, but can be customised. The packaging tool with VS seems, well pants. Been looking around and tools like WiX seem to be very complicated (I have no love for XML) and smell like they are beta software. The fact the VS plugin for it only seems to work with VS 2003 seems sounds like it does not get much love. What I remember of the big boys (Wise and the other one) 6 or more years ago were that you had to fight the thing, which I never had to do with Inno. Suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Giles wrote:
Okay, asking for a bit of advice.
Giles wrote:
move to an MSI based installer
Ah well, I can still recommend NSIS though.
Giles wrote:
to ease deployment
:~ - I've only had problems with MSI stuff, nice thing with NSIS is that it'll always run, your app may not when it's finished but at least NSIS doesn't require the user to update their system before trying to even run the installer. On a more serious note it depends on what you want to try and do with the installer. The big apps that I've written simply need to copy and paste files essentially to install them, possibly write a few registry entries etc. If an app needs to be updated it can be overwritten but more commonly now my apps have some form of auto-update facility in them. Hmm, maybe I should get off my backside and finish those tools for generating NSIS scripts, would simplify matters a great deal. On a side-note the biggest fault I can find with MSI stuff is that you have to have the Windows Installer on a system before it can install. Some of the apps I write will almost never be installed onto such a system, with NSIS it's 99% guaranteed to run regardless of what's installed. Also file sizes tend to be much smaller in what I've tried.
Just Google it. Failing that try phoning :bob:
-
Okay, asking for a bit of advice. The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment, and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a packaging tool. Been using the faithful INNO setup for years, but, sadly, it will probably never be ported to create MSI's as it would mean a rewrite for the author. Any suggestions? I just want something thats easy to use, but can be customised. The packaging tool with VS seems, well pants. Been looking around and tools like WiX seem to be very complicated (I have no love for XML) and smell like they are beta software. The fact the VS plugin for it only seems to work with VS 2003 seems sounds like it does not get much love. What I remember of the big boys (Wise and the other one) 6 or more years ago were that you had to fight the thing, which I never had to do with Inno. Suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Giles wrote:
Suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Toss a coin. Both Wise and Installshield are equally as painful - but are probably the only choices for MSI installers. I have no love for either but Installshield gets the job done after a fashion. WiX is nice but has a steep learning curve, but well worth learning.
Michael CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
-
Giles wrote:
Okay, asking for a bit of advice.
Giles wrote:
move to an MSI based installer
Ah well, I can still recommend NSIS though.
Giles wrote:
to ease deployment
:~ - I've only had problems with MSI stuff, nice thing with NSIS is that it'll always run, your app may not when it's finished but at least NSIS doesn't require the user to update their system before trying to even run the installer. On a more serious note it depends on what you want to try and do with the installer. The big apps that I've written simply need to copy and paste files essentially to install them, possibly write a few registry entries etc. If an app needs to be updated it can be overwritten but more commonly now my apps have some form of auto-update facility in them. Hmm, maybe I should get off my backside and finish those tools for generating NSIS scripts, would simplify matters a great deal. On a side-note the biggest fault I can find with MSI stuff is that you have to have the Windows Installer on a system before it can install. Some of the apps I write will almost never be installed onto such a system, with NSIS it's 99% guaranteed to run regardless of what's installed. Also file sizes tend to be much smaller in what I've tried.
Just Google it. Failing that try phoning :bob:
Ed.Poore wrote:
- I've only had problems with MSI stuff, nice thing with NSIS is that it'll always run, your app may not when it's finished but at least NSIS doesn't require the user to update their system before trying to even run the installer.
MSI installers are often a requirement of corporate IT departments, as it makes deployment easy as they can be used straight from a group policy.
Michael CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
-
Okay, asking for a bit of advice. The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment, and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a packaging tool. Been using the faithful INNO setup for years, but, sadly, it will probably never be ported to create MSI's as it would mean a rewrite for the author. Any suggestions? I just want something thats easy to use, but can be customised. The packaging tool with VS seems, well pants. Been looking around and tools like WiX seem to be very complicated (I have no love for XML) and smell like they are beta software. The fact the VS plugin for it only seems to work with VS 2003 seems sounds like it does not get much love. What I remember of the big boys (Wise and the other one) 6 or more years ago were that you had to fight the thing, which I never had to do with Inno. Suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Giles, Stay with WiX. You spend months developing your software - in just a week you can get on top of WiX. The tradeoff is worth it. WiX is not beta. Actually, it is just an XML frontend to the MSI database structure. There is really not much going on there in terms of hiding the MSI details from you. We have a quite a complex app with many optional features, both inproc and local COM servers, a on-demand driver install, and customized UI. WiX could do it all. I dont know about Wise and others, but with WiX you stay close to the MSI format.
-
Ed.Poore wrote:
- I've only had problems with MSI stuff, nice thing with NSIS is that it'll always run, your app may not when it's finished but at least NSIS doesn't require the user to update their system before trying to even run the installer.
MSI installers are often a requirement of corporate IT departments, as it makes deployment easy as they can be used straight from a group policy.
Michael CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
Fair enough, it just depends on his requirements, all of the stuff I've written I'm the sole developer so I get complete control on what tools I use :). I don't bother with all this "group policy" stuff ;P, write different types of applications.
Just Google it. Failing that try phoning :bob:
-
Okay, asking for a bit of advice. The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment, and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a packaging tool. Been using the faithful INNO setup for years, but, sadly, it will probably never be ported to create MSI's as it would mean a rewrite for the author. Any suggestions? I just want something thats easy to use, but can be customised. The packaging tool with VS seems, well pants. Been looking around and tools like WiX seem to be very complicated (I have no love for XML) and smell like they are beta software. The fact the VS plugin for it only seems to work with VS 2003 seems sounds like it does not get much love. What I remember of the big boys (Wise and the other one) 6 or more years ago were that you had to fight the thing, which I never had to do with Inno. Suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Giles wrote:
The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment,
Thanks for the good laughs. I hadn't read something so funny on the past few months. :laugh: Don't get offended, I've done this myself in the past... :doh:
-
Giles, Stay with WiX. You spend months developing your software - in just a week you can get on top of WiX. The tradeoff is worth it. WiX is not beta. Actually, it is just an XML frontend to the MSI database structure. There is really not much going on there in terms of hiding the MSI details from you. We have a quite a complex app with many optional features, both inproc and local COM servers, a on-demand driver install, and customized UI. WiX could do it all. I dont know about Wise and others, but with WiX you stay close to the MSI format.
Vivek Rajan wrote:
WiX is not beta. Actually, it is just an XML frontend to the MSI database structure. There is really not much going on there in terms of hiding the MSI details from you. We have a quite a complex app with many optional features, both inproc and local COM servers, a on-demand driver install, and customized UI. WiX could do it all.
Is that so good? Well, I have to learn it, then. :)
________________________________________________ Personal Blog [ITA] - Tech Blog [ENG] Developing ScrewTurn Wiki 1.1 and its Plugin Framework
-
Okay, asking for a bit of advice. The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment, and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a packaging tool. Been using the faithful INNO setup for years, but, sadly, it will probably never be ported to create MSI's as it would mean a rewrite for the author. Any suggestions? I just want something thats easy to use, but can be customised. The packaging tool with VS seems, well pants. Been looking around and tools like WiX seem to be very complicated (I have no love for XML) and smell like they are beta software. The fact the VS plugin for it only seems to work with VS 2003 seems sounds like it does not get much love. What I remember of the big boys (Wise and the other one) 6 or more years ago were that you had to fight the thing, which I never had to do with Inno. Suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
-
Giles, Stay with WiX. You spend months developing your software - in just a week you can get on top of WiX. The tradeoff is worth it. WiX is not beta. Actually, it is just an XML frontend to the MSI database structure. There is really not much going on there in terms of hiding the MSI details from you. We have a quite a complex app with many optional features, both inproc and local COM servers, a on-demand driver install, and customized UI. WiX could do it all. I dont know about Wise and others, but with WiX you stay close to the MSI format.
Vivek Rajan wrote:
I dont know about Wise and others, but with WiX you stay close to the MSI format.
Until they change it! Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh Smith -
Okay, asking for a bit of advice. The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment, and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a packaging tool. Been using the faithful INNO setup for years, but, sadly, it will probably never be ported to create MSI's as it would mean a rewrite for the author. Any suggestions? I just want something thats easy to use, but can be customised. The packaging tool with VS seems, well pants. Been looking around and tools like WiX seem to be very complicated (I have no love for XML) and smell like they are beta software. The fact the VS plugin for it only seems to work with VS 2003 seems sounds like it does not get much love. What I remember of the big boys (Wise and the other one) 6 or more years ago were that you had to fight the thing, which I never had to do with Inno. Suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
SharpDevelop 2.1[^] supports editing WiX setups, including a visual designer for setup dialogs. Read more about it here[^]
-
Giles wrote:
The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment,
Thanks for the good laughs. I hadn't read something so funny on the past few months. :laugh: Don't get offended, I've done this myself in the past... :doh:
I have absolutely no idea why you didn't get a gadzillion of '5' votes yet...
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
Linkify! || Fold With Us! || sighist -
Okay, asking for a bit of advice. The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment, and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a packaging tool. Been using the faithful INNO setup for years, but, sadly, it will probably never be ported to create MSI's as it would mean a rewrite for the author. Any suggestions? I just want something thats easy to use, but can be customised. The packaging tool with VS seems, well pants. Been looking around and tools like WiX seem to be very complicated (I have no love for XML) and smell like they are beta software. The fact the VS plugin for it only seems to work with VS 2003 seems sounds like it does not get much love. What I remember of the big boys (Wise and the other one) 6 or more years ago were that you had to fight the thing, which I never had to do with Inno. Suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
1. Windows Installer is complicated, and all Windows Installer tools are complicated. 2. It doesn't really ease deployment, except offering some features "classic" installers are missing. Use only if you must support one of these.
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
Linkify! || Fold With Us! || sighist -
I have absolutely no idea why you didn't get a gadzillion of '5' votes yet...
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
Linkify! || Fold With Us! || sighist -
Okay, asking for a bit of advice. The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment, and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a packaging tool. Been using the faithful INNO setup for years, but, sadly, it will probably never be ported to create MSI's as it would mean a rewrite for the author. Any suggestions? I just want something thats easy to use, but can be customised. The packaging tool with VS seems, well pants. Been looking around and tools like WiX seem to be very complicated (I have no love for XML) and smell like they are beta software. The fact the VS plugin for it only seems to work with VS 2003 seems sounds like it does not get much love. What I remember of the big boys (Wise and the other one) 6 or more years ago were that you had to fight the thing, which I never had to do with Inno. Suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Always prefered Wise over InstallShield, Wix well we shall see. Suprisingly the builtin Visual Studio 2003 Installer was pretty rich but most people can't find the features (enough articles here at CP on it) Wise is as intuitive as it gets a lot easier then Orca MSI editor :-D
-
Okay, asking for a bit of advice. The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment, and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a packaging tool. Been using the faithful INNO setup for years, but, sadly, it will probably never be ported to create MSI's as it would mean a rewrite for the author. Any suggestions? I just want something thats easy to use, but can be customised. The packaging tool with VS seems, well pants. Been looking around and tools like WiX seem to be very complicated (I have no love for XML) and smell like they are beta software. The fact the VS plugin for it only seems to work with VS 2003 seems sounds like it does not get much love. What I remember of the big boys (Wise and the other one) 6 or more years ago were that you had to fight the thing, which I never had to do with Inno. Suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Advancedinstaller[^] works a treat for me, and has the benefit of being free for the basic version. ChrisB
-
Fair enough, it just depends on his requirements, all of the stuff I've written I'm the sole developer so I get complete control on what tools I use :). I don't bother with all this "group policy" stuff ;P, write different types of applications.
Just Google it. Failing that try phoning :bob:
Yep, its so we can do a role out as part of a group policy. Makes things easier for the support team.
"Je pense, donc je mange." - Rene Descartes 1689 - Just before his mother put his tea on the table. Shameless Plug - Distributed Database Transactions in .NET using COM+
-
Giles wrote:
The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment,
Thanks for the good laughs. I hadn't read something so funny on the past few months. :laugh: Don't get offended, I've done this myself in the past... :doh:
That bad is it? Not so much me, as I like Inno, but the support guys want to role releases out as part of a group policy.
"Je pense, donc je mange." - Rene Descartes 1689 - Just before his mother put his tea on the table. Shameless Plug - Distributed Database Transactions in .NET using COM+
-
Okay, asking for a bit of advice. The time has finanlly come when we would like to move to an MSI based installer to ease deployment, and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a packaging tool. Been using the faithful INNO setup for years, but, sadly, it will probably never be ported to create MSI's as it would mean a rewrite for the author. Any suggestions? I just want something thats easy to use, but can be customised. The packaging tool with VS seems, well pants. Been looking around and tools like WiX seem to be very complicated (I have no love for XML) and smell like they are beta software. The fact the VS plugin for it only seems to work with VS 2003 seems sounds like it does not get much love. What I remember of the big boys (Wise and the other one) 6 or more years ago were that you had to fight the thing, which I never had to do with Inno. Suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Wouldn't it be possible to just write a parser that reads the Inno Setup file/script and then outputs a Wix compliant xml file, and then just call wix to build the MSI from that?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Techno Silliness
-
Advancedinstaller[^] works a treat for me, and has the benefit of being free for the basic version. ChrisB
That looks really interesting. Thanks for posting it!
Anna :rose: Currently working mostly on: Visual Lint :cool: Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "Be yourself - not what others think you should be" - Marcia Graesch "Anna's just a sexy-looking lesbian tart" - A friend, trying to wind me up. It didn't work.
-
SharpDevelop 2.1[^] supports editing WiX setups, including a visual designer for setup dialogs. Read more about it here[^]