Installer Software

[owensdj]

I'm a software developer looking to buy a software installation tool. Right now I'm considering InstallShield Express 3.5 and Wise for Windows Installer 3 Standard. I used to use an older install package from Wise that I bought back in 1996, and I liked it. My software installs will be pretty simple, so I want something that will make it easy to create an install. The installation tool needs to let me install on all 32-bit Windows operating systems from Windows 95 to Windows XP.

Can somebody recommend one of those installation tools over the other? How about another tool you think you be better? Thanks for any info you can give me.

 

[stndn]

at where i work, we use the wise installer, install anywhere, and install shield.
one note, please stay from install anywhere -- it's so hard to work with. it's been giving us nightmares, and we plan to dump that soon ....

likewise, we also plan to move out of wise installer, since (according to one of the developers) it has been outdated for a while, and may be missing some functionalities, etc.

currently we are moving everybody to use install shield 6.3.

according to our installer guru (who happened to left us just recently to work at other place), install shield would be the better choice among all three. it seems to be more advanced than the others, and provide wider functionalities and predefined functions to work with windows, etc. so if you are planning to use on windows, installshield may be a good choice. a bit pricey, but may be worthwhile in the long run

i'm not sure how similar install shield and installshield express is, so i can't really say much.....

as far as ease to use, i don't know how they compare to each other. i never worked with any installers before this (other than unix scripts), but i picked up things quite ok after about 2-3 weeks tinkering with it. the problem is there's no good book that talks about installer development, etc, so it's somewhat hard to begin with ....

not really much of advice, just blabberings .... but hope it gives a bit of idea

-885-

 

[juiio]

Wise for Windows Installer is one of the buggiest pieces of software I've ever used. However the interface on it is much better than InstallShield for Windows Installer.

 

[NJLOAD]

Here is a neat program I have used. It works real well for 29.00 some bucks.

You worked long and hard on your project, and now its time to distribute it. Don't spend weeks wrestling with a complicated installation builder when you are so close to being done. Self-Extracting Archive Utility (SEAU) is extremely easy to use, and you can have a professional installation program built in minutes. The installer is self-contained in a single compressed executable file, and runs on all of the 32-bit Windows platforms (9x, NT, 2000, ME). SEAU is easy, but also feature rich, with support for uninstallation, multiple languages, interface customization, license agreements, read me files, file associations, DOS batch operations, multiple disk spanning, DLL installation, automated installations, patches, expiration dates, shared files, command line archive building, and much more. Don't stumble over scripts - hit the finish line running!

Click Here for More Screen Shots

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[bot2600]

I cringe everytime I see an app installing with wise. It has a particular annoying bug to me, I run several monitors, and it won't let me install with to monitors side by side. I have to disable, run the installer, then re-enable the other monitor again. It doesnt seem to mind the vertical monitors. just the one beside the primary... beats me.

my monitors are set up like this.

s s

p s

Bot

 

[DaveSimmons]

<< considering InstallShield Express 3.5 >>

ISExpress 2.0 was pretty good and very easy to use. The main limitation was that you couldn't write your own script code, just what it generates for you. Once we needed to call custom C++ DLL functions we moved to IS 5.53 which was a "classic" version (stable, well documented, ran well on every version of windows). If they still offer a 30-day evaluation I'd say Express is worth a look.

If you have VC++ 6 then you already sort of have IS 5.5 except for some crippled bits (like not being able to call DLL functions).

 

[owensdj]

DaveSimmons, I do have VC++ 6. What all can I do with that version of InstallShield that comes with it? I've never really looked at it.

 

[DaveSimmons]

<< I do have VC++ 6. What all can I do with that version of InstallShield that comes with it? >>


It does use editable script code, so pretty much anything except write a custom DLL and call functions in it. I don't think it can call external installs / sub-installs either, so if you need to run someone else's install as part of your own you must just tell users to run it first -- "Did you install the MDAC database stack? If not, please press exit and run that install first."

FYI, www.InstallSite.org has very good support for all versions of InstallShield, and there are IS newsgroups at news.installshield.com

 

[Sukhoi]

Is there any free installer software? I don't need any kind of advanced functions. I just need to copy a few files to specific folders. I know I could do this with a .bat file, but an installation file would be much nicer.