InstallShield Limited Edition comes as free addition to Visual Studio 2010 users. It has many options on how to configure installation package, but I am having an issue to figure out if is possible to create a self-extracting setup with LE. Alternative to this can be 7-zip SFX add-on, NSIS, etc.
I've since imaged a new dev machine and installed InstallShield 2010LE. Through the standard Visual Studio (solution) Configuration Manager you have the choice of build CD-ROM, DVD-5 and Single Image ( self extracting EXE ).
Windows's own IExpress.exe can also be used for creating a self-extracting installer.
I don't have InstallShield LE 2010 installed on this machine so it's hard to answer. Why don't you install it and find out? My guess is InstallShield supports this. If anything it might not support an uncompressed MSI in order to try to prevent you from coloring outside of the lines.
Or you could just call them. Worst that will happen is you'll get spam from them trying to get you to upgrade.
Related
I need a recommendation for an installer.
I was using InstallShield but unfortunately it was a demo version that only allowed me to get a quick start.
Now I need to switch to an installer that is open source and allows to:
create environment variables on user's computer
add files to a giving path
create .exe (via Release Wizard in IstallShield)
I came across tools like NSIS but I am not sure it has the same features as InstallShield.
Please advice!
Thank you
You can use Wix tool. It is open source and it has most of the capability of Installshield. Only problem with WiX is there would be a learning curve of MSI technology and WiX itself.
Is it correct msi file is the Windows equivalence of deb file in Debian?
In Debian/Ubuntu, after I compile a program into an executable, I can create a deb file out of the executable using a program called checkinstall. Then I can install a deb file by dpkg.
In Windows,
what is the program/command that can create a msi file from an executable built from source code?
What is the program/command that can install a msi file?
Thanks.
The Windows Installer consists of an SDK, database specification and runtime service. Introduced in 1999, it originally had redistributables that were nesseccary to "bootstrap" onto the system before and MSI could be installed. Various versions of this runtime have been been baked into various versions of Windows for a very long time now so generally this is no longer a concern. You can simply install the MSI.
Technically the SDK does come with some tools that could be used to create an MSI. However this would be like using notepad and CSC to write a .NET app. Almost no one would actually do it this way. One notable tool does come from the SDK: ORCA.exe. ORCA is a database editor which is very useful for examining MSIs and making minor modifications to already built MSI. It technically can be used to create an MSI but very few outside of Microsoft back in the early days ever did.
For the most part Microsoft left installer authoring tools to third parties. Windows Installer XML (open source), Industrial Strength Windows Installer XML (open source), InstallShield, Visual Studio Deployment Projects, InstallAware and AdavancedInstaller are a few to list. It is outside of the scope of Stack Overflow but I will link a 2 minute video showing how to use Visual Studio, WiX and IsWiX to create a simple MSI with a shortcut for a single EXE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnV_OU6fk8c
Disclosure: I'm the project maintainer for the IsWiX on GitHub.
As for how to install an MSI. An MSI is a database not a program. It is installed by the Windows Installer service msiexec.exe
There is an extensive command line documented at:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa367988(v=vs.85).aspx
There is no standard tool for creating MSI installer files. There are many, many third-party tools, free and paid, that will help you to create MSIs; you'll have to do some searching and comparing and figure out what works best for you. The command to install an MSI is the MSI itself, you don't need to explicitly run it with any other program like you do with deb/rpm packages.
How can I create the .msi package for visual Basic 6.0. I tried to search internet, but found only how to create the installer package for .net. I want it for Visual basic 6.0.
Any help will be appreciated.
Inno Setup is a very good (free) installer for VB6, and if you must have an MSI you can find a converter to wrap an Inno EXE with an MSI wrapper.
I recently went through the same struggle as you. Your best option for VB6 is to purchase a third-party package to create the msi. A google search for "Windows Installer" or "MSI Installer" should get you started.
Here is a discussion on the various options:
What installation product to use? InstallShield, WiX, Wise, Advanced Installer, etc
Microsoft's native way of creating .msi files in VB6 was by using the Visual Studio Installer Add-in. That's what I used back in the day.
You might still be able to find it online somewhere. I googled around looking for a download for some time and wasn't able to find one.
The other option that might do in a pinch is the package and deployment wizard, although I always found it to be rather hard to work with. If you're not careful to avoid installing certain protected DLL's you can get caught in serious DLL Hell. I generally used the Installer add-in.
Jim Mack's solution is increasingly popular as support for VB6-specific tools wanes away into nothingness.
Is there any way to compile the Nullsoft Installer Script (NSI) setup as a MSI package instead of an EXE?
Unfortunately, No.
NSIS lets you create scriptable, procedural installation packages. It's simple, easy to use and has a number of features not present in Windows Installer.
Windows Installer (MSI) creates database driven, transactional installation packages. When written properly a Windows Installer package is very robust, a file gets corrupted/deleted and it will be automatically reinstalled. Windows Installer is aware of UAC and only elevates when required, basically if you're creating software for the corporate market, you will need to provide an MSI.
Check out The Definitive Guide to Windows Installer for a good introduction to understanding MSI.
NSIS installers can be wrapped in MSI files using the MSI Wrapper. It is a small tool that I made for wrapping NSIS and Inno Setup installers. It uses WiX to compile the MSI but there is a GUI to help you instead of an XML file.
It was made because I needed a tool for creating MSI files based on traditional EXE installers. I needed support for uninstall and upgrades and only wanted the wrapped installers to show up once in the Add/Remove programs in the control panel.
I also wanted to be able to pass command line parameters to the wrapped installer when the MSI is installed.
If you want to use it or help me improve it, you can find it at http://www.exemsi.com.
I share the opinion that wrapping an executable installer in an MSI package is not the ideal solution. However, when you already have the exe it can make a lot of sense :-)
No (And there are no plans to support .MSI output), try WIX
I'm developing a Visual Studio application with WPF, but right now is the moment where I have to choose my installer.
I need my project to be able to write on the GAC and on registry, but I'm not sure if I should use Visual Studio installer or Wix... I can't find on Google information that says exactly the differences between both of them.
I found that Wix is more complete, but I can't find any article that specifies real differences between one or another...
Can anyone help me to find more specific information or to choose between both of them?
EDIT: Sorry, I specify:
I'm using Visual Studio 2010 professional.
The end product is the same, a windows installer msi.
It's just different how you get there. With the old vdproj there wasn't much other than setting up files to be copied and registry keys as far as I remember. Anything else and you would have to create a custom action in C++ or VBS, not a particularly easy task if you are .net developer.
However with the advent of Wix there are a lot more in-built custom actions which enable you to create a rich installation experience and if you need to create your own custom action you can use .net. Also it is much easier to create a bootstrapper which can install dependencies along with your msi as well as being able to create a front-end in WPF.
As #nvoigt said the old vdproj type is not supported in VS2012 and it also cannot be built by a build server without doing some nasty setup (you have to install VS).
All in all there really should be no question of what to use, Wix is the way forward.
Caveman_Dick wrote:
"Anything else and you would have to create a custom action".
And that in a nutshell is the difference. Visual Studio Deployment Projects heavily abstracts you from the underlying windows installer and seals away a great deal of it's ability. This goes against the very design of Windows Installer which is supposed to be a declarative, transactional programming model.
Take installing a Windows Service as an example? Windows Installer has the ServiceInstall table. VDPROJ fails to expose this so you are off writing brittle custom actions resulting in a less elegant and less robust installer.
WiX on the other hand is a very thin abstraction. It's all about XML XSD elements and attributes that represent the underlying Windows Installer table data. The build process simply transforms the XML to SQL tables. If MSI can do it, WiX can (99%) do it.
VDPROJ was a horrible mistake and Microsoft has finally owned up to it and killed it. Now WiX doesn't have UI designers ( I've written one on CodePlex though) so you might also want to consider InstallShield Limited Edition (FREE).
Using a combination of ISLE and WiX I can get the best of both worlds.
With Setup projects no longer shipped with current versions of Visual Studio, you might want to use Wix. Otherwise, you will have to write it again once you switch to a current version of Visual Studio.