Installation/Setup creation tools

Stuart Eggerton

Canberra ADUG Meeting12 April 2005

What does a setup program do?

Install files and DLLs Create Short Cuts to start application install registry keys, file association

etc. Uninstall (fully clean up) Other stuff…

Types of installer

Manual install - Archive file e.g. ZIP file Batch file install using XCOPY etc. Installer script with internal engine e.g.

INNO setup, Microsoft Setup API and older versions of Installshield and WISE

installers that use external installation engine e.g. Windows Installer/MSI

Installer script with internal engine e.g.

INNO setup Microsoft Setup API (the old

Microsoft setup.inf based installer)

Internal Engine - Pros

Many free tools exist for creating installation scripts

Users can create small scripts in minutes Normally text based - Scripts can be

checked in to version control systems and revisions easily compared using a text based diff

Often produces extremely small installation packages with little overhead for the installation engine.

Internal Engine - Cons

Complex installations could produce extremely large scripts

Hard to maintain logic flow when installing to several versions of windows with the same script.

Specific code must normally be written to handle existing versions of DLL files during both installation and uninstallion.

Silent installations without a GUI often require a whole new script

What is Windows Installer?

Different angle File Format - MSI Avoid DLL Hell

Windows Installer - features Reference counting Install on demand

Self repair

Windows Installer – Pros The engine protects Operating System DLL

files. – no installing version 1 of a DLL over version 7

Database based (uses MSDE SQL Server database engine)

DLLs are managed by the Windows Installer not the users script

Self Repair via “advertised shortcuts” or selecting repair in add remove programs

Features can be installed on demand e.g. Microsoft office setup

Windows installer - Cons Generally MSI tools are expensive No support for non windows Operating Systems Extremely complex and unforgiving if the database

gets corrupt. This occurs because the data is generally not constrained by foreign keys rather it is just text based

GUIDs {E1260869-E36B-4386-823A-52DB6B7B82C0} Database based (uses MSDE SQL Server database

engine) Self Repair

Tools - Evaluation Criteria

“Free” Can install files Can create shortcuts Uninstall works!!!

Tools – “Nice to have” criteria

Can produce windows MSI format Compression. Fancy stuff during install e.g. banner Even Fancier stuff during install -

Form designer so installation can request data input

Internal Engine tools

Core Engine - Nullsoft Scriptable Install System

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/ The script based install system that is

used to package the Winamp mp3 player software.

Basic package is just a script compiler.

HM NIS EDIT (Using NSIS Engine to compile)

http://hmne.sourceforge.net/ An editor/wizard for NIS ScriptsPros Open source Wizard driven interface Supports uninstall Decent looking windows help file Syntax highlighting and context sensitive hintsCons Once script has been created by wizard subsequent

editing is by hand Default directory didn’t work for me.

Core Engine - Inno Setup

http://www.jrsoftware.org/ The script based install system that is

used to package the Winamp mp3 player software.

Basic package is just a script compiler.

A very widely used installer

IS Tool (Uses INNO Setup Engine to compile)

http://www.istool.orgPros One of the most polished setup editors around Simple interface Can generate script to download files as part of

installation Great wizard Syntax highlightingCons Wizard doesn’t seem to work after generation

although editing is pretty easy by selecting items in the tree

External engine - Windows Installer MSI generating tools

Using the powerful features of Microsoft’s engine

MIS Tool - Installer2Gohttp://www.dev4pc.com/Pros Create single file MSI One of the few Free MSI/Windows installer editors Can be distributed silently to users or onto servers

using Microsoft SMS or Citrix etc. Great if you must create an MSI Very simple tab based interfaceCons some advanced features of windows installer such as

advertising and install on demand cannot be included in setup

Freeware version shows advert at end of installation.

WinINSTALL LE 2003

http://www.ondemandsoftware.comPros Create single file MSI One of the few Free MSI/Windows installer editors Can be distributed silently to users or onto servers

using Microsoft SMS or Citrix etc etc Vendor claims previous version was distributed with

windows and used by a large number of system administrators.

Cons No GUI I couldn’t get my shortcut working and the help wasn’t