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Installation/Setup creation tools Stuart Eggerton Canberra ADUG Meeting 12 April 2005.
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Transcript of Installation/Setup creation tools Stuart Eggerton Canberra ADUG Meeting 12 April 2005.
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