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.
Related
I've been trying to install VSCommunity Edition for the last few hours with no luck. If you check the screenshot attached. You'll see that I can change the directories for installation for the first 2 requirements, but im unable to change the directory for the 3rd option (the SDK install along with others) which just happen to be the very large percentage of files. It's wanting to install over 45gb of files on my C Drive which is just a 50gb SSD.
enter image description herehttps://i.imgur.com/burFR90.jpg
I want to switch to D, and the only thing i can see fro any of the Microsoft help docs and posts is "You can change this upon fresh installation".
Which this is. I've uninstalled anything else remotely like it just to be sure.
Do any of you have any ideas or any experience with this issue, or anything i can try? I simply don't have enough space to install on C, and because of this, i can't start learning c# which is required for work.
Thanks so much in advance guys, it's really getting me worried now.
Although I can only guess why Visual Studio is locking down the SDK path, here's a few workarounds and recommendations:
In your screenshot, the installer warns you about possible performance effects of installing Visual Studio on your D drive. I assume this is because your D drive is not an SSD. Microsoft's Visual Studio system requirements document recommends that you install to an SSD, and based on community experience, this is one recommendation you really want to stick to, otherwise IDE responsiveness may be well below your expectations, especially if you decide to install extensions in future.
Instead, you might want to reconsider the set of components that you're installing. If you're only getting started with C#, you'll probably be just fine with developing class libraries, console and web applications targeting .NET Framework or .NET Core. If this is the case, you might want to go to the Workloads tab in the installer and opt out of some of the heaviest workloads (such as Mobile development with .NET). Consider only installing .NET desktop development, ASP.NET and web development, Azure development and .NET Core cross-platform development. If you only select these, your installation is going to be much slimmer.
If minimizing Visual Studio installation as shown above isn't enough, consider an alternative way of setting up your .NET development environment. For example, you can download and install .NET Core SDK and .NET Core Runtime, and use one of the two most prominent alternative code editors: Visual Studio Code or JetBrains Rider that are both quite compact.
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.
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.
With the upcoming release of Visual Studio 2010, and all the lovely new features in C# 4.0, I would really love to update from 2008. However, over the last few years, I've managed to get student pricing, or even free versions via the MSDN Academic Alliance.
Now I am no longer a student.
I can't seem to justify the $AU500 pricetag of even the Standard version for what is at the moment, essentially a hobby. As much as I may like for it to be, it just isn't paying the bills.
So, I've read on the Microsoft site that there's no non-commercial clause in the Express version EULA which is good because I do the occasional bit of paid work in it. How much is missing from the Express version though, compared to Professional (what I use currently, and what the 2010 beta is)? Am I likely to go through withdrawal pains as I reach for something that just isn't there?
As far as addons go, the only one I've really played with is VisualSVN, and I can live with just using TortoiseSVN manually. Anything else I should be aware of?
Version comparisons can be found here: (For 2008) (Edit: A far more in depth document can be downloaded from here)
The things that leap out to me as features I wouldn't want to be without are:
Extensibility (no plugins like VisualSVN or Resharper)
Source Code Control
Remote debugging
64-bit compiler support (x64) (from the first link, though the document implies you can make 64bit apps...)
SQL Server 2005 integration
No setup projects (for making MSI installers)
Limited refactoring
Some missing debugging tools (especially the threads window)
If you can live without those (and the other limitations that wouldn't bother me personally) then I guess that you'll get by with Express just fine.
Final thought: Express isn't your only option for free .net development, there is also SharpDevelop which has some advantages (SVN integration, compact framework support) over Express. Though I'm sure it has many limitations too.
Do you do any entrepreneurial work? If you're building the next killer app, check out BizSpark: http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/
There is new program now available from Microsoft to allow web developers to access the Microsoft Stack similar to the BizSpark program.
It is called Website Spark. VS 2008 Professional Edition and SQL Server 2008 Web Editon are some of the tools available through the program.
Of all things I would probably miss the ability to install extensions. Especially tools like AnkhSVN and TestDriven.NET have grown invaluable to me...
I would seriously consider investing some money in purchasing VS especially if you can get some of that back by using it for jobs.
Maybe switching to Eclipse and Java is an option for you?
EDIT:
By the way, investing a few hundred dollars is common among ex-students. If you were a designer you would probably have to invest $1000 on Adobe software.
You won't be able to have solutions with multiple project types (so no mixed language solutions), or solution folders either.
The main thing that is missing is the ability to build an installer for a solution.
The work-around is to build the installer using some open source installer for .NET, e.g. WiX.
And multi-language solutions are more cumbersome (e.g. mixed C# and VB.NET).
I use the Professional version, but I didn't experience any problems with opening and building my project/solution in the Express Edition.