Preferred installation package

[Mihai Hangan]

I have tried Installshield, from 5.5 Professional version to Installshield X version. I also tried some version of Wise. It is true that Installshield looks more professional and has a lot of features, some of which you may never have to use, but it is also true that it is full of bugs (from crashes of the application and UI freezing to incorrect saving of settings and so on). I would go for the .Net installer, maybe with some custom actions and dialogs. But to make sure you make the right decision, I also recommend you try out some free evaluation versions of these installers. This way you can see for yourself if the features you need are truly there and will make (or not) your life easier. I hope this helps,

Michael

[Grimolfr]

Head over to CodePlex and start a project, and the rest of us will be along shortly.

---

Grim

(aka Toby)

MCDBA, MCSD, MCP+SB

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[WhiteSpy]

We use a little program called Setup Factory. I like it because its easy to use has a scripting interface and doesn't cost bags of money to buy. Anyone else used both it and InstallSheild? Jbarton

[bendodge]

InnoSetup? That's what I use, and it's very good. The only thing I have found it lacking out of the box is internet update/download capabilities, but it has a full scripting language (Pascal), so you could make your own internet stuff if you need it. It has no nags, just a permanent entry in the executable's Comment field.

[Timatalti2]

So far, we haven't found anything we need to do that cannot be done with the .net tools. However, the .net tools are underdocumented and at times frustrating. I have used Wise in the distant past and also a couple of lesser known installers. If I found something needed installing that would not install with the .net tools, I would consider writing a C++ program to get the job done before I would consider Wise or InstallShield.

[Gecces]

The Visual Studio installation project is the way to go. Installshield SUCKS. I cannot say just how much it sucks, but believe me, it SUCKS. Did I mention installshield SUCKS - anyone who has done any real work with installshield will tell you IT SUCKS. If someone doesn't think Installshield SUCKS, then they don't realize how screwed up their project really is. There is no comparison - just use the Visual Studio Installation project - Its really straightforward. If it cannot do what you need, then you're doing it wrong. Also, look to see what installers some of the open source projects are using - I've seen some really nice installers on various mainstream projects such as Python, MySQL, and many others.

[Fred Johanns]

Before checking out any other installation packagers I'd have a look at Advanced Installer (www.advancedinstaller.com). Personally, I'd rather be programming and NOT wasting my time on learning install scripts and managing them... AI is a scriptless installer, yet it provides all the custom action functionality to add your own scripts if there is something you need to do that the installer doesn't handle, and you can code them in vbs and I believe js, or do what I did and create one c# project win forms exe to handle all of your custom actions and pass it command line parameters from the install package. After looking at NSIS, Microsoft's XML install nightmare, WISE, using Install Shield, I'd recommend AI hands down if for no other reason than ease of use and ROI in terms of the amount of TIME you actually need to spend to get a working install package. Check it out!

-Fred

Email:
fred[at]eastpointsystems.com

[HLord]

I have used Wise, IS and a much more. If your application needs a complex installation as I have needed in the past, then you should go with an installation package that is scriptable. I define a complex installation as one where you would need to install/register many components, you need to modify the registry based on values already there (more than pushing settings), install IIS and configure a virtual folder, install RPC Servers, configure COM/COM+/DCOM or even setup virtual users, etc. Recently I have used NSIS, which impresses me more and more the more I use it. http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page[^] Just my two cents worth. H L Lord

[jcherron]

I have used Wise, InstallShield, VS deployment, Setup Factory and TDK from Clarion. By far the best package I have ever used is IntallAware. From my understanding it was started a few agos by some people that left InstallShield to do things right. It is a great product. HTH Jeremy Herron

[reshi999]

Installshield is great, it allows customisation at every level. I've used it to automatically register DLL's and web service extensions in the past. The builtin VisualStudio package is v.poor, have had issues with DLL installs and version authentication everytime I've used it. Is useful for dev installs but wouldn't trust it with remote installs.

[reshi999]

Ahem, I have used both and like Installshield - At least it doesn't bug out my installs when a DLL is already installed twice on the same PC, unlike the VS installer. Anyway each to their own ;-)

[One Smart Motor Scooter]

I've used Wise for 3+ years now and have been happy with Wise. The only real issues I've had with Wise have been related to issues that Wise (or any installer) appears to have interfacing with MS's Installer. Those issues were readily solved by a call to Wise support. Have you considered automating your install with WIX? The price is right.

[LRaiz]

I had experience with InstallShield, VS2005 Installer and NSIS. My preference is with NSIS. It works fine, more flexible, simpler and powerful. It is popular enough to get someone to answer your questions on various user forums rather quickly.

[Heston Holtmann]

I've never used Wise or any other setup authoring package other then InstallShield. I started learning and using InstallShield back in 1999 using their native scripting language which is a lot like VB6 code. Since 2002 i've been using InstallShield Professional 7.0 and currently using 10.5 to author MSI setups; Vista will probably force me to upgrade to IS 12.0 soon... IS still has issues, bugs and a learning curve, but most of the complexity comes from the Microsoft's MSI complexity and not InstallShield directly. IS support people are very good and very responsive; However, If I was to start from scratch on a new product.. I would take a serious look at WiX. Microsoft's Open Source Windows Installer package based on XML and hosted on SourceForge http://wix.sourceforge.net/ WiX was developed initially by Microsoft employees before it was made open source, and has also been sweeping through Microsoft as their new standard MSI builder in addition to using the MSBuild tool. According to msft bloggers and channel9 videos; Microsoft uses WiX to author the setups for: 1) VS2005 2) Office 2003 (*not confirmed*) 3) Office 2007 .. and i'm sure a lot of other stuff. If you Don't need to support MSI setups; then InnoSetup is worth looking at!

________________________________ Heston T. Holtmann, B.Sc.Eng. Software Engineer

[Josh Smith]

Thanks Heston. Great info.

:josh: My WPF Blog[^]

[__Nick]

At one point I did some work on the WiX project and spoke at length with Rob Mensching. I'm *far* from an expert, and it's been about 8 months since I've even looked at install code so I doubt I could answer too many questions. IMHO, WiX is your best option if you want to use MSI. The thing that I liked most about it is that it's XML based. It does not (at least not the last time I checked) provide a way to automatically generate an installer for you. I know that there was work proposed for that. A little more on WiX, it was pioneered by Rob Mensching. Rob Mensching wrote ORCA (MSI Database Viewer) and has worked on the Office install team. I *believe* that he has said that WiX is used by the Office install team currently, if not I know that he has stated that there are many teams inside of MS that do use it. As far as scalability, it is just as scalable as MSI is. Visual Studio install projects are supposed to be notoriously bad, I've never used one so this is hearsay. They particularly fail when doing upgrades and often leave you launching ORCA to accomplish what you want. At my prior job I was presented with the fact that we needed a new installer. The one we had was based on NSIS (an older version). I evaluated many options, including InstallShield (too pricey), InnoSetup (not enough control on what it output), creating by hand (........), etc. In the end I decided that because of the fluidity of our installer I wanted something that would build from XML. I was about to write a bunch of scripts to accomplish this when I found WiX. I wrote some fairly complex installers that looked great and still think that after working with it that WiX was the best option.

[David Veeneman]

One thing that I'm sure most people are aware of--InstallShield doesn't exist as a standalone entity any more. They sold to Macrovision (the copy protection people) some time ago. From what I heard, thair business was hurt pretty badly by the .NET installer, so they decided it was time to get out. I had miserable experiences with both InstallShield and (un)Wise. I haven't touched either since .NET 1.0. If my installation is more complex than the normal case, the first thing I do is question how well I've analyzed installer requirments.

David Veeneman www.veeneman.com

[Stephen Harrison]

Hi Josh, I’ve used IS for a number of years since it started doing msi’s and I’m sad to say never had a happy moment with it. It was summed up in the early days of the msi development when they were promoting their consulting side of the business to help customers write IS installers – I think that said enough but just to help matters trying to do a install for all users of IS (the early versions) on the machine didn’t work and if I logged in under a different user IS wouldn’t work – if they couldn’t install their own app properly what hope did I stand! I had repeated cause for disappointment with IS, issues like being able to execute SQL scripts in recent versions but I needed MSDE bootstrap installed and I just couldn’t get the two bits to work together, ended up writing script to attach databases which totally defeated the SQL execution ability of the upgrade we had purchased. I’ve also had previous issues with COM+ where it didn’t support making a simple client side COM+ installer, this had to be done on the server the thing was running on then that called from the project, this was in V8 I was amazed that a simple client COM+ install feature wasn’t in the app by that time. It wasn’t helped by a OS bug that required a service patch to be installed – the IT dept were really pleased that I wanted that done on their server! I never got on with their scripting language, it appeared to take the bad bits from every other language going, or at least (if I’m being to harsh their) was a mixture of different well known languages. Recently I wanted to launch a .net custom install step as part of the install, simple enough to add to the installer BUT whilst it new it was .net and new that .net was a prerequisite it wouldn’t execute the step if the machine didn’t already have .net on. I think it probably needed a reboot + resume setup or maybe the custom action was happening before the .net was loaded on. I was disappointed that the app couldn’t handle that all automatically for me when I told it I wanted a custom .net action, I think the VS installer worked fine for that. I recently saw a demo by InstallAware[^] at a shareware conf and I was very impressed with it, I would suggest you have a serious look they have a 30 day trial, I have purchased a licence for it but I have only played with it so far so I can’t give you real world advice on using it. I think you will find their upgr

[Jasmine2501]

John Cardinal wrote:

more bugs than a bait shop

I LOL'd :)

"Quality Software since 1983!"
http://www.smoothjazzy.com/ - see the "Programming" section for freeware tools and articles.

[Member 96]

That's an oldie but a goodie! :)