Windows Installer Software
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OK. Looking for advice, rumors, anecdotes, horror stories etc., about what the best Windows installer software is. Have looked at: InstallShield most widely known, but major bucks. Wise Solutions seem to be the 'Avis' of installers (we try harder). Indigo Rose looks like it may do the job for a reasonable price. Exemplar Software used this about 4 years ago, looks like it hasn't been updated since. We need to install applications, demo source code, device drivers and ActiveX controls for various hardware products. The targets would be Win95 OSR2, Win98, Win2K, WinXP and WinCE. We've made inquiries to the above vendors, but have either received canned or no responses so far, so I thought that I would ask the troops in the trenches. Steven J. Ackerman, Consultant ACS, Sarasota, FL http://www.acscontrol.com steve@acscontrol.com sja@gte.net
I tried InstallShield and I really disliked it. I couldn't believe that I would have to get my hands dirty with their scripts just to make some basic changes to the setup program! So I said to myself, there's gotta be an alternative out there that gives me a lot flexibility without having to learn yet another scripting language. Then I found Installer VISE. It was great: very flexible, tons of options, and no scripts. It's been a while since I've used it, but you may wanna give it a shot. Regards, Alvaro
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The installer put out by Microsoft is very limited. If you setup requirements are simply copy files and thats it, then you should consider it. If you need to prompt the user for input (aside from the installation folder), then it may not help you much as you cannot create custom dialogs in it. Check out www.installsite.org for a comparison of the MSI (Windows Installer) authoring products available.
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I know some people say that, but I can't help feeling that they are either prejudiced by the price or haven't taken the time to learn the environment's capabilities properly (and boy does it take time). I've been using ISD7 for the past five months or so now, regularly, at various degrees of complication, and once you know your way around and know what does what, it's like changing a nappy. You don't particularly like it, but you know the end result will be better for it. ________________ David Wulff http://www.davidwulff.co.uk "My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group, there was less competition there" - Gandhi
David Wulff wrote: I've been using ISD7 for the past five months or so now, regularly, at various degrees of complication, and once you know your way around and know what does what, it's like changing a nappy. You don't particularly like it, but you know the end result will be better for it. So maybe you can help me with following issues:
- If component A has only one subcomponent B, you cannot select A without getting B selected automatically. Why this annoying behaviour? The only work-around I know is to add another subcomponent to A, which is hidden.
- Usage of & in component texts. For the display name you use a single &, but in the description text you have two enter a double &, because otherwise an underscore is displayed. Why did the InstallShield developers missed to add the
SS_NOPREFIXstyle to the static ctrl? - InstallShield uses the regional settings for the UI language. Why? All other applications I know use the system language, but not InstallShield.
Regards Thomas Finally with Sonork id: 100.10453 Thömmi
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The MSI installer is VERY VERY powerful. Now the editing UI they put out isn't. But that is the installer. Tim Smith Descartes Systems Sciences, Inc.
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OK. Looking for advice, rumors, anecdotes, horror stories etc., about what the best Windows installer software is. Have looked at: InstallShield most widely known, but major bucks. Wise Solutions seem to be the 'Avis' of installers (we try harder). Indigo Rose looks like it may do the job for a reasonable price. Exemplar Software used this about 4 years ago, looks like it hasn't been updated since. We need to install applications, demo source code, device drivers and ActiveX controls for various hardware products. The targets would be Win95 OSR2, Win98, Win2K, WinXP and WinCE. We've made inquiries to the above vendors, but have either received canned or no responses so far, so I thought that I would ask the troops in the trenches. Steven J. Ackerman, Consultant ACS, Sarasota, FL http://www.acscontrol.com steve@acscontrol.com sja@gte.net
We use Wise now. We dumped Installshield as a result. It's just as expensive as Installshield, but it's eaiser to use once you get used to the differences between the programs. "...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
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My experience is that InstallShield sucks the most. I think I've seen Wise recommended in previous threads. Although I haven't used it.
Todd Smith
Todd Smith wrote: My experience is that InstallShield sucks the most. I think I've seen Wise recommended in previous threads. The Wise Installation System is very nice to use -- it's very user-friendly, can do anything, and the only coding you need to do is your program. However, I do wish -- as with InstallShield -- that the dialogs could be more customizeable. Sincerely Yours, Brian Hart "And that's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and the children are above-average." - Garrison Keillor
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I tried InstallShield and I really disliked it. I couldn't believe that I would have to get my hands dirty with their scripts just to make some basic changes to the setup program! So I said to myself, there's gotta be an alternative out there that gives me a lot flexibility without having to learn yet another scripting language. Then I found Installer VISE. It was great: very flexible, tons of options, and no scripts. It's been a while since I've used it, but you may wanna give it a shot. Regards, Alvaro
I've been using IV for some time now and love it. Drag-and-drop for most installs, but has scripting capabilities when needed. BTW I just found http://www.chimpswithkeyboards.com/projects/Installer/ and will be giving it a look. The self-repair option of MSI is so tempting.....
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Todd Smith wrote: My experience is that InstallShield sucks the most. I think I've seen Wise recommended in previous threads. The Wise Installation System is very nice to use -- it's very user-friendly, can do anything, and the only coding you need to do is your program. However, I do wish -- as with InstallShield -- that the dialogs could be more customizeable. Sincerely Yours, Brian Hart "And that's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and the children are above-average." - Garrison Keillor
Brian Hart wrote: However, I do wish -- as with InstallShield -- that the dialogs could be more customizeable Not all dialogs of InstallShield are as customizable as I want. For example the option dialog to install either Typical, Minimal and Custom. AFAIK you cannot get rid of one of them X| I had do patch the dialog to remove Minimal. Fortunately, the InstallShield Runtime does not complain about it :rolleyes: Regards Thomas Finally with Sonork id: 100.10453 Thömmi
Disclaimer:
Because of heavy processing requirements, we are currently using some of your unused brain capacity for backup processing. Please ignore any hallucinations, voices or unusual dreams you may experience. Please avoid concentration-intensive tasks until further notice. Thank you. -
I use InnoSetup exclusively. It does almost everything that you might need, and if you need to add some custom functionality, you can download the InnoSetup Extensions (which you should do anyway), which amongst other things, grants you the ability to use Pascal scripting to modify behavior or to respond to different actions, and create your own custom wizard pages. I would also seriously suggest downloading ISTool, which is a GUI front end to InnoSetup, and supports the Extensions. All of this is, as before mentioned, free. Jamie Nordmeyer Portland, Oregon, USA
Does InnoSetup support "silent" or "quiet" installs? Also, can I execute another setup program from Innosetup? For example if my program requires a redistributable or I need to launch another program's setup program like SQL Server or Informix or whatever.
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Another idea for a possible article is how to create a dll in C++ which can be called by the install engine. Ideas for functions defined in the dll could be copying registry keys which is useful when upgrading an application from a previous version or detecting if a specific application is in use.
Consider it done. Well part of it. I am putting together my first article on how to create the DLL, and add it to the MSI. I will post it tomorrow, after I get some sleep and proof read it a couple times. As for all the functions you mentioned, you can do a search on groups.google.com and practically copy and past the functions into the DLL code.
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Does InnoSetup support "silent" or "quiet" installs? Also, can I execute another setup program from Innosetup? For example if my program requires a redistributable or I need to launch another program's setup program like SQL Server or Informix or whatever.
Yes on executing another setup program (I've done this at work with the DCOM98 redistributable, as a matter of fact), sort of on silent installs. The first of two methods would be to run the setup program with the /SILENT or /VERYSILENT flags. You could use either a batch file for this (blah!), or name your actual setup file _setup.exe, or something, and write another small app called setup.exe that does nothing more than call _setup.exe with the /SILENT flag. The second option would be to simply turn all of the pages off. I've never tried this before, so I don't know how silent it would be, but it would at least be very close. Jamie Nordmeyer Portland, Oregon, USA
