I'm looking for installation creator engines. I've checked NSIS and NDJS.
I would like to request for some additional information about them, or another tools I could use.
I'm not quite to figuring out whether they are tools in order for me to able to creator installer for several platforms
What's the state of NDJS? Both have not a good documentation. I'm not quite to able to figure out how's their state
Are both useful for .NET developed projects?
Are there any alternatives?
There is also Inno Setup which is free and amazing installation system.
I am not sure about NDJS but I can recommend NSIS and Inno Setup (see disclaimer below).
Both NSIS and Inno Setup are excellent. They are open source, well documented (yes this is true!), with large community and active development (NSIS has new release 3 days ago even during Christmas!).
NSIS is C like scripting language but a little more difficult to start with. Inno Setup is Pascal like language easier to learn.
Their capabilities are unlimited because of their scripting nature: you can do everything in them and even wrote C/C++/pascal/C# (maybe other) plug-ins if you need to execute something really special. They are useful for any Windows apps (native, .NET, plugin-s, drivers, firmware, from small apps to enterprise solutions).
To start with .net installer (Inno Setup) try e.g. this code: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/20868/NET-Framework-Installer-for-InnoSetup
Disclaimer:
I tried several other commercial install system systems but none of them offered the same as NSIS/Inno Setup (for free). I use NSIS and Inno Setup daily and I recommend them as best install system available.
I am NSIS and Inno Setup professional and I develop professional installers in this systems (http://www.unsigned.sk). I also developed Microsoft Visual Studio and Embarcadero RAD studio extensions which integrate NSIS and Inno Setup into these IDEs and Graphical Installer which is skinning engine for installers.
Apart from what Slappy said I would like add Microsoft Xml type installer i.e. Wix into your list. Thought NSIS/Inno is a beautiful piece of tool to build installer system, Wix is more modern and directly accessible from Visual Studio projects.
Learning curve of Wix is a bit hard than these scripting languages but many companies are now using this Wix tool.
Related
I need someone to point me to the right direction. I am new to Windows Installer and I have researched WiX, Advanced Installer, Inno Setup and NSIS and I don't even know the correct keyword to look for to see if they solve my problem.
What I want to accomplish is:
I have many PC software for user to download. Each of them is a separate install file (exe or msi).
What I hope to accomplish is to create a Custom Windows Installer that is able to accomplish these during installation process:
List all PC software available for user to download/install.
Allow user to choose which PC software they would like to download/install.
Download/Install these PC software for user.
Each PC software is hosted in different location from where user executes Custom Windows Installer.
Is there any solution that meets my requirement?
thank you all, appreciate your help.
You can do this for sure with Advanced Installer and WiX.
In Advanced Installer you have a built-in support for suite installations, as in the linked tutorial. In this example the applications are included in the setup package, but you can configure them to be downloaded from a URL too, during the installation. Our support team (disclaimer: I work on Advanced Installer) is very responsive so if you have any questions check out the forums or send an email to support.
In WiX there is a bundle support called Burn. Of course the learning curve for WiX is a little bit steeper, but that's how it is with OSS :)
I would prefer NSIS or Inno Setup. They are free (open source) and easy to learn.
They are script-based, so basically you can do everything. There are a lot of plugins available for them (for example, for downloading files), and you can adjust any aspect of the installer.
Create a custom page where you list the software
Selected software will be downloaded
Software will be executed
NSIS has its own language similar to C, and Inno Setup uses Pascal language for scripting.
I am writing a installer for my company's software. The specs is pretty tight: doesn't require administrator rights, good if it also include auto-update capability, have a nice UI (as opposed to the normal windows wizard UI), small and fast, robust...
I looked at Advanced Installer, which satisfy everything except having a good UI. (it shows the classic MSI installer UI which is super-duper old). We would love to have something more user-friendly.
Do you have any suggestions for installers I should look at, given these constrains?
P.S: i'm reading about Google's Omaha next, then maybe NSIS and InnoSetup / WIX...
This question is very subjective. However Office 2007, 2010, Visual Studio 2012 (aka VS11) were all developed using WiX. The software is fully open source and you can take a look at the latest weekly release for an example with a very nice UI.
Amm .. I couldn't understand if you want to develop it by yourself, or using another software, but if you do, I think that Install creator pro can be good for you.
I'm looking for Qt packager for my Qt application targeted for windows platform.
I need it to create a nice installer to deploy and distribute my product on windows PC.
Which is best and recommended FREE packager?
For packaging I use the WIX (Windows Installer XML) toolset.
There are several advantages to using WIX:
Free and open-source
Creates MSI files, which allows your application to be easily deployed across large networks and correctly uninstalls (also very important)
Supported and developed by Microsoft, it is used by several other Microsoft teams internally, e.g the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview installer features some of the latest WIX features
XML configuration allows reuse of components of installers (sets of files, feature sets)
Several types of user interface, new wizard pages can be created
Integrates into Visual Studio
Integrates into MSBuild - can allow consistent packaging to ensure you don't ship debug versions
I have used WIX for installers at work and for my own projects at home.
It isn't as simple as other solutions to get started, but once you've created a simple package, you'll find it easy to add new features.
NSIS is the way to go in my opinion. Straight forward scripting, compatible with all Microsoft Operating Systems and with support for User Levels.
Plus it has a huge active forum for any specific help you may need. I use the HMNSIS editor to write the scripts and have not come across anything it hasn't been able to do yet!
Qt has nothing that can help you, but the free Windows installer package creator is without a doubt NSIS
Inno Setup is a another good, free, light-weight installer system.
There is the Qt Installer Framework. That is a link to the manual for it. It is multi-platform. With it, you write XML files in a directory structure for delivery of components in the directories, called packages. It has scripting. You then compile it into a setup for your target platform.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that they did not make it available to users of the Community edition until recent versions. When the earlier replies were written, it may well have been commercial version only.
Alas, nothing seems to warn you that you have to collect up components, nor tell you what they are, or even talk about the process; except that the 3rd. party, but free (Windows only), Dependency Walker can tell you what dynamic libraries are being used. I don't find it a necessity, but it can be helpful. (Tip: On Windows anyway, be sure to put "qwindows.dll" in a "platforms" directory with the exe. Tip #2: Make sure the Qt DLL's or static libraries are ones compiled for your compiler.)
I am searching for tool or software to build wizard installer to be easy to custom and have good UI view.
something like Microsoft Office / Microsoft VS or any good setup process?
Does Microsoft give tools like this?
I am not so familiar with software builds and installation.
Ideas from experts in installation field will be great
Thanks ALL.
Check out Caphyon's Advanced Installer.
There is NSIS and Inno Setup
They create Native Setup Applications, with very low overhead, and are very easy to learn with hundreds of examples
The latest versions of Visual Studio come with an installer, I'd also recommend the open-source NullSoft NSIS installer.
Visual Studio has it's own packaging tool, check it under the sub-menu of tools
I've had great success with the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolkit.
There's a bit of a learning curve, but it's very flexible. The Wix Tutorial is a great resource to help you get started.
How can I create a setup file in visual basic 6 after completion of my programming work?
Front End language is Visual Basic 6,
Backend : MS Access 2003 and
Report Tools : Crystal Report 8.5. Operating System Windows XP.
You need to be a little clearer about some of this.
"Front end/back end" is really terminology and a thought pattern from the MS Access world. It doesn't really apply to VB6 development in any meaningful way unless you're doing something really odd like automating instances of MS Access.
That's about the only place where any "MS Access runtime" comes in as well. If you're actually using Access Reporting you might be doing this though - which seems odd but anything is possible.
See Deploying Complex Microsoft Office Access Runtime-Based Solutions.
Much more likely what you are trying to say is that you have a VB6 program that is using a Jet MDB as an embedded database, and using Crystal Reports 8.5 for reporting.
There should be no issue about any "runtime" for Jet on Windows XP, since Jet 4.0 is shipped as part of the OS even as far back as XP RTM (gold). It is also extremely unlikely that XP will have an MDAC release any older than 2.7 (see Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) release history).
So this leaves you looking for a way to package your VB6 program, any immediate dependencies such as possibly the VB6 runtime components, and the Crystal Reports 8.5 runtime components. You may also have INI files, etc. to bundle in there.
A long, long time ago (1998?) the PDWizard was replaced for most purposes by Visual Studio 6.0 Installer 1.0, and shortly after VSI 1.1 was released (1999?) which made up for a number of ills. This is a pretty basic tool for authoring Windows Installer packages, but it should meet your needs.
Along with this you'll want the recent merge modules for your dependencies: Merge Modules for Service Pack 6 for Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual C++ 6.0.
Then of course you need a merge module for Crystal Reports 8.5, and for this we have to turn to the community because BO didn't start releasing them until CR9. One place to look for this is InstallSite: Seagate Crystal Reports 8. Your real problem is that CR8.5 is ancient.
If this doesn't work out for you, you can always hope that CR8.5 Dev installed on your machine with a "good enough" set of .DEP files (which tell setup authoring tools what subdependencies each dependency has, among other things). This may still let you use VSI 1.1 to succesfully package your application with CR8.5.
You might also look at for-pay packaging tools as already suggested. If desperate enough you might look at some legacy installer technologies too, just in case their communities have addressed your issues.
If I misunderstood and you really do use your VB6 program to automate an instance of the "MS Access 2003 Runtime" you'll probably have to build some hybrid package.
But normal VB programs do not use Access or Access Runtimes to open and work with Jet databases.
You can search google for package and deployment vb6
and you will find millions of links showing in steps how to do that.
The Package & Deployment Wizard is quite primitive and not well-suited to distributing things like the MS Access runtime and Crystal Reports. You'd be better off using one of the more powerful commercial products like InstallShield or Setup Factory. However, these can be pricey (especially InstallShield).
There are also free products like Inno Setup and Nullsoft, but these may not be as easy to use or may lack some important features.
Bob's suggestion of using Visual Studio Installer 1.1 for a Visual Basic 6 application is sound but the Microsoft link he has given for the download does not work. I guess MS thinks nobody needs VB6 anymore. After searching a little I found a 2008 snapshot of MSDN page in web.archive.org complete with setup files:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080513102621/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718352.aspx
Good suggestions above.
While it might seem unlikely that VB6 app could possibly be in use, there are those of us in the public sector that keep VB6-like apps and even Access apps alive because public dollars are not in a hurry to replace app that still work. A frequent mantra heard in many places is that you leave it alone if it is not broken. Broken enough that is--otherwise baling wire works just fine as long as VB/VBA developers can still found.