Installation softwares (PC desktop)
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Tim Deveaux wrote:
weren't those extensions Installshield trojans?
Could be. I do remember people complaining about something like that (but I've read so many complaints about so many products, on the Interwebs, that it's tricky to remember which was about what). And as I say, as soon as I saw how easy (and logical) it was to knock up a script with inno, I never even thought about the built-in one again.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
But no msi, right? hmmm...
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Once in a while we start having a discussion on how to improve our workflow when creating installers for our software (large, but non complex installer) We are using InstallShield; it is a beast, it works, but hard to use and integrate into our Continuous Integration tools; but it has all the features we need (EXE, redistributables, chained MSI...) Someone always ask if there is something better that we can use; so I go on the internets and look around and go to this [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_installation\_software) page. I'm always surprised at how few installer software there are. I'm surprised that even Microsoft does not offer a good packaging tool. What are you using to package your software? Are we stuck on what we have right now ?
I'd rather be phishing!
Maximilien wrote:
What are you using to package your software?
Back when I was doing that sort of thing, I used Wise. It was easy to use and did the job. Not an option these days.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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Once in a while we start having a discussion on how to improve our workflow when creating installers for our software (large, but non complex installer) We are using InstallShield; it is a beast, it works, but hard to use and integrate into our Continuous Integration tools; but it has all the features we need (EXE, redistributables, chained MSI...) Someone always ask if there is something better that we can use; so I go on the internets and look around and go to this [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_installation\_software) page. I'm always surprised at how few installer software there are. I'm surprised that even Microsoft does not offer a good packaging tool. What are you using to package your software? Are we stuck on what we have right now ?
I'd rather be phishing!
Have anyone used WixSharp? I've used it only once on a small project and it was simple to use. But I cannot say anything more.
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Once in a while we start having a discussion on how to improve our workflow when creating installers for our software (large, but non complex installer) We are using InstallShield; it is a beast, it works, but hard to use and integrate into our Continuous Integration tools; but it has all the features we need (EXE, redistributables, chained MSI...) Someone always ask if there is something better that we can use; so I go on the internets and look around and go to this [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_installation\_software) page. I'm always surprised at how few installer software there are. I'm surprised that even Microsoft does not offer a good packaging tool. What are you using to package your software? Are we stuck on what we have right now ?
I'd rather be phishing!
Using Ghost Installer myself. Dunno if it's THE BEST EVA, but it works. There's also ClickOnce (which is actually what MS offers, that's integrated into Visual Studio).
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I looked at WiX; It might work for a simple installation, but for a large installation (23,000 files) it will be hard to maintain; at least create the first iteration, adding add the components/features/files.
I'd rather be phishing!
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Maximilien wrote:
What are you using to package your software?
Back when I was doing that sort of thing, I used Wise. It was easy to use and did the job. Not an option these days.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
Yes Wise was the easiest and best of the bunch to use. Plus it could be run on the command line (batch file). Wonder whatever happened to it? Thought - Perhaps when a product is no longer supported commercially it should be legally put into the public domain, rather than leaving users high and dry?
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Once in a while we start having a discussion on how to improve our workflow when creating installers for our software (large, but non complex installer) We are using InstallShield; it is a beast, it works, but hard to use and integrate into our Continuous Integration tools; but it has all the features we need (EXE, redistributables, chained MSI...) Someone always ask if there is something better that we can use; so I go on the internets and look around and go to this [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_installation\_software) page. I'm always surprised at how few installer software there are. I'm surprised that even Microsoft does not offer a good packaging tool. What are you using to package your software? Are we stuck on what we have right now ?
I'd rather be phishing!
Yet another vote for Inno Setup[^]. Basic setups are handled using the built-in facilities, starting from a text file script. It includes competent scripting support based on Pascal. For really heavy lifting you can call out to DLL's. Scripts can be compiled from the command line. It receives pretty steady support from its author. As others have mentioned, Inno Setup's only lack is that it doesn't support MSI. For my money, that's a benefit. MSI and the Windows Installer are over-engineered and poorly documented and supported for the task they are meant to accomplish. Most of the installer-building apps based around MSI are just expensive lipstick on a pig. You mentioned you're using InstallShield. Be advised that they are #2 on my list of development teams first-against-the-wall-when-the-revolution-comes. We bought their 'international' edition for over $1K a little over ten years ago after the salesperson told us that it supported most European languages, along with Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. Come to find out, the international edition only supports English. You had to pay an additional $500 for each language you wanted to localize your install to. We chucked those ripoff fuckers and went with Inno Setup.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I use Advanced Installer[^]. Its project file is plain text and can therefore be maintained under version control. The installer creation is command line driven, allowing you to integrate it into your CI process[^]. /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
InnoSetup has all of these advantages and you can write custom install steps (in Pascal, but still, it's doable). In addition, there are multiple ways to interact with the file, from plain-old-text editor to the Inno editor, to a wizard & something with property panes and all that if you're not a coder.
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Once in a while we start having a discussion on how to improve our workflow when creating installers for our software (large, but non complex installer) We are using InstallShield; it is a beast, it works, but hard to use and integrate into our Continuous Integration tools; but it has all the features we need (EXE, redistributables, chained MSI...) Someone always ask if there is something better that we can use; so I go on the internets and look around and go to this [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_installation\_software) page. I'm always surprised at how few installer software there are. I'm surprised that even Microsoft does not offer a good packaging tool. What are you using to package your software? Are we stuck on what we have right now ?
I'd rather be phishing!
I've used .msi installers forever, but had to give them up a few years ago because of their basic clumsiness, their lack of bigcorp support and the fact that they throw security principles to the wind. Advanced Installer was my last one used. It took me more than 3 years to develop my distributed installer called Hiveware. It overcomes the security issues and the ease-of-use problem as the user only sees the asked-for app functionality. The platform was finished in December, 2017.
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We use WIX[^]. Albeit it could be tedious to write the xml installer creation scripts by hand, it fits better in an automated workflow where the said scripts are generated by higher level software ... Haven't tried to use it in the more complex scenarios (like the ones mentioned in OP) though ...
Find more in V-NET: connects your resources anywhere[^].
I found WIX to be a major PITA to set up an install and slow as hell when running the install. InnoSetup was easy, fast to install, free, etc, etc, (: If you can move away from WIX, I highly suggest InnoSetup
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Once in a while we start having a discussion on how to improve our workflow when creating installers for our software (large, but non complex installer) We are using InstallShield; it is a beast, it works, but hard to use and integrate into our Continuous Integration tools; but it has all the features we need (EXE, redistributables, chained MSI...) Someone always ask if there is something better that we can use; so I go on the internets and look around and go to this [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_installation\_software) page. I'm always surprised at how few installer software there are. I'm surprised that even Microsoft does not offer a good packaging tool. What are you using to package your software? Are we stuck on what we have right now ?
I'd rather be phishing!
Another vote for Advanced Installer. It has an unbelievable range of options but the defaults are sensible, and support for occasional bugs is excellent.
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Once in a while we start having a discussion on how to improve our workflow when creating installers for our software (large, but non complex installer) We are using InstallShield; it is a beast, it works, but hard to use and integrate into our Continuous Integration tools; but it has all the features we need (EXE, redistributables, chained MSI...) Someone always ask if there is something better that we can use; so I go on the internets and look around and go to this [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_installation\_software) page. I'm always surprised at how few installer software there are. I'm surprised that even Microsoft does not offer a good packaging tool. What are you using to package your software? Are we stuck on what we have right now ?
I'd rather be phishing!
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Once in a while we start having a discussion on how to improve our workflow when creating installers for our software (large, but non complex installer) We are using InstallShield; it is a beast, it works, but hard to use and integrate into our Continuous Integration tools; but it has all the features we need (EXE, redistributables, chained MSI...) Someone always ask if there is something better that we can use; so I go on the internets and look around and go to this [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_installation\_software) page. I'm always surprised at how few installer software there are. I'm surprised that even Microsoft does not offer a good packaging tool. What are you using to package your software? Are we stuck on what we have right now ?
I'd rather be phishing!
We have a client/server WinForms application. We use a standard VS setup project to create an MSI for our initial installs, but the application is "self updating". We upload new EXEs and DLLs into our SQL Server database. The application looks for new components when it launches and when it finds new ones, downloads them to a temporary location, launches an "updater" EXE, and kills itself. The updater moves the new EXEs/DLLs from the temp location to the application folder and re-launches the main EXE. Works like a champ.
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Once in a while we start having a discussion on how to improve our workflow when creating installers for our software (large, but non complex installer) We are using InstallShield; it is a beast, it works, but hard to use and integrate into our Continuous Integration tools; but it has all the features we need (EXE, redistributables, chained MSI...) Someone always ask if there is something better that we can use; so I go on the internets and look around and go to this [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_installation\_software) page. I'm always surprised at how few installer software there are. I'm surprised that even Microsoft does not offer a good packaging tool. What are you using to package your software? Are we stuck on what we have right now ?
I'd rather be phishing!
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We have a client/server WinForms application. We use a standard VS setup project to create an MSI for our initial installs, but the application is "self updating". We upload new EXEs and DLLs into our SQL Server database. The application looks for new components when it launches and when it finds new ones, downloads them to a temporary location, launches an "updater" EXE, and kills itself. The updater moves the new EXEs/DLLs from the temp location to the application folder and re-launches the main EXE. Works like a champ.
Ditto! We do the same, only using an installer (InstallShield) for the initial installation. After that, the application handles any updates to itself and associated files. Of course there are manual update mechanisms in place just in case we put out an update that breaks the updater! :laugh: We also use home-brewed installers for add-on modules using 7-Zip self-extracting libs to create 'smart' installers that detect where the payload needs to go and optionally (on a first install) prompt for a password. They also clean up after themselves.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Maximilien wrote:
Someone always ask if there is something better
Sure -- create a Docker container of everything pre-installed. ;)
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The GitHub "Clone or download" button is my installer! :-D
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I found WIX to be a major PITA to set up an install and slow as hell when running the install. InnoSetup was easy, fast to install, free, etc, etc, (: If you can move away from WIX, I highly suggest InnoSetup
Davyd McColl wrote:
InnoSetup was easy, fast to install, free, etc, etc,
Maybe that is true. However we do not use an UI to build installers, it's part of an automated process that is controlled by other "scripts". The advantage of such a process is that one can consistently inject/replace publication information into various components (exe, dll, msi ...) of the final product (like version number, file version, copy right, URLs, target market, configuration, etc ...) and had the generating "scripts" under version control ... The WIX's xml files are intermediate targets, it's eassier for us to produce ... === edit === OK, innoSetup is also script based. In fact I used Pascal for quite a while in the early days. I will have a closer look at it later
Find more in V-NET: connects your resources anywhere[^].
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Once in a while we start having a discussion on how to improve our workflow when creating installers for our software (large, but non complex installer) We are using InstallShield; it is a beast, it works, but hard to use and integrate into our Continuous Integration tools; but it has all the features we need (EXE, redistributables, chained MSI...) Someone always ask if there is something better that we can use; so I go on the internets and look around and go to this [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_installation\_software) page. I'm always surprised at how few installer software there are. I'm surprised that even Microsoft does not offer a good packaging tool. What are you using to package your software? Are we stuck on what we have right now ?
I'd rather be phishing!
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InstallShield is still the reigning king for us - 30 years and counting Do you use InstallShield Standalone Build for CI?
Currently, we have a scheduled task that runs every morning to build the installers (IsCmdBld). The main issue we have with InstallShield is that its something that is hard to maintain (people add/remove files from the distributions but there's only one of us that can update the installshield project).
I'd rather be phishing!
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Davyd McColl wrote:
InnoSetup was easy, fast to install, free, etc, etc,
Maybe that is true. However we do not use an UI to build installers, it's part of an automated process that is controlled by other "scripts". The advantage of such a process is that one can consistently inject/replace publication information into various components (exe, dll, msi ...) of the final product (like version number, file version, copy right, URLs, target market, configuration, etc ...) and had the generating "scripts" under version control ... The WIX's xml files are intermediate targets, it's eassier for us to produce ... === edit === OK, innoSetup is also script based. In fact I used Pascal for quite a while in the early days. I will have a closer look at it later
Find more in V-NET: connects your resources anywhere[^].
Yes! I encourage looking a little deeper. Look, if WIX does all that you want and makes you happy, then cool. I'm just saying that I spent a lot of time in "installer space" (because it was part of my primary job function at two places of work, so that's work over >5 years, with a gap in the middle) and WIX and InstallShield were a mission where InnoSetup wasn't. InnoSetup also has tooling which targets a few different user groups, from text manipulation masters to competent programmers to people who just want to click their way through making an installer. Which is great, because sometimes I'm all three (: And it's free. And the resultant installers are fast and have the compression that you choose, so can be quite small. Just give it a go, and if it doesn't deliver ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm still happy to choose it whenever I want an installer system.