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