What is the best installer? [closed]

问题:

Poll: What is the best and easy to use installer to use with .NET 3.5 SP1 windows applications?

回答1:

My vote is for:

Nullsoft Scriptable Install System - it's popular, easy to use and FREE

Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) is a script-driven Windows installation system with minimal overhead backed by Nullsoft, the creators of Winamp. NSIS has risen to popularity as a widely used alternative to commercial and proprietary products like InstallShield. - Wikipedia

There is rich plugins directory for NSIS, where you can find for example a plugin for installing windows services.

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Category:Plugins

Commercial alternatives:

• InstallShield - probably the most popular one and the most expensive option
• Wise - also very popular
• Advanced Installer - new and nice, not that popular yet, but trending

Other:

• WiX - could be very good if you can spent some time on the learning curve. It is used by many Microsoft products.
• Inno Setup

List of Installation Software at Wikipedia

回答2:

My personal preference is Advanced Installer, it has a nice GUI for creation and editing of projects which are XML files so fits into source control easily.

回答3:

Innosetup is the fastest one I've used to make setup files quickly and easily (out of Nullsoft and VS), providing you get the designer that is a separate download.

回答4:

In the past I've used both InstallShield and Wise. I wouldn't say that using either of them is a joy, but they get the job done for large Windows applications.

Of the two, I would generally favour InstallShield.

回答5:

I very much like WiX, which is said to be the installer used by MS internally for Office.

回答6:

I used NSIS on my first-and-last Windows project, and was quite happy with it.

回答7:

You could use ClickOnce deployment, if your environment allows you to do so. (If it's convenient).

Actually any answer could apply to your question here, choosing the "right" installer never possible for "a windows application".

• How many different machines are your going to install to?
• How large is your application?
• Does it have many dependencies? (Databases etc.)
• What is the "level" of the users who are going to install your app? Are they system administrators who install apps for a living, or are they joe-random "Hey lets click install because it looks cool" types.

just my 2ct.

回答8:

The one out of the box from Visual Studio 2008.

回答9:

Nullsoft Scriptable Install System anytime... simply because of it's ease of use and more than that, it's free!