I graduated from Emory University with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics.Each program would have a different set of needs, such as scripts, DLLs, security settings, etc., so one tool that could handle a complex set of requirements was necessary.
We always used InstallShield in our early days as it came packaged with Visual Studio and Visual Foxpro. In this article, Im going to mention a couple of other free and paid (though much cheaper) utilities you can try out in your organization. Program Er And Windows Professional System ThatNSIS is a professional system that you can use to create everything from very simple to very complex Windows installers. Its small, yet has a large feature set, which makes it suitable for Internet distribution. Luckily, for beginners, it also includes a bunch of plug-ins and pre-defined scripts to get you started. Using the script language, you can perform many different installation tasks like upgrades, version checks, system reboots, modification of environment variables, access to Windows API and more. If you want a feature breakdown between the five different versions they have, then check out the link. The free version actually has a lot of features and we were able to use that in our company for a long time because our installers were fairly simple. Its basically a set of tools to see how users install, use and uninstall your applications. You can easily see how large your user base is, load a survey when a user uninstalls the program, and get information about the users system and geographic location. All of this on a sleek and modern web interface that you can test yourself. It doesnt require any code changes and they have a free AppX converter tool. Those are just some of the unique features, but Advanced Installer pretty much covers all the bases. Its got a ton of features and works great for small businesses with moderately complex requirements. Its not going to be able to do what InstallShield or even Advanced Installer can do, but it covers pretty much all of the basics. You can create some very complex installers with it, but youll be coding quite a bit and using a command line often. If you dont have Visual Studio, you can use the Wix tools or MSBuild. Enjoy. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications. My name is Aseem Kishore and I am a full-time professional blogger.
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