Packaging application

Question

We have a windows app and we were using Wise for deployment. Recently we switched to InstallAware and though it has some good points we are facing some issues. Can someone recommend another deployment and packaging app? We are a small company and we do not have a dedicated staff for packaging etc. Also our package includes SQL server express installation and we would love to have the simplicity of such includes as is in IA.

Answer 1

I have never used anything but Windows Setup and the setup projects that come with Visual Studio. Do you have any unusual requirements that prevent you from doing that?

Answer 2

We've used NSIS several times, both for full regular desktop installers, and for small, silently installing patches. It's easy to write a basic installer, especially if you use HM NIS Edit which acts as a wizard and IDE for NSIS. Because it's scriptable, you'll be able to check if SQL Server Express is already installed - if not, it can be installed as part of your installer process.

Answer 3

How about NSIS or InnoSetup? They're both widely used, and not that hard to use. (If you choose InnoSetup, also download ISTool, it's a lot easier than writing the script file manually.)

Answer 4

I assume your requirement as follows, You are using wise package studio to create\customize the application to create MSI and these msi package will be deployed or installed to your environment.

My question is : How many desktops \laptops are their in your company (Infrastructure)

Solution to your question based on my assumption:

At present Admistudio is the best product to replace the Wise and you can use Installshield repackager to create or customize the applications. Install anyware is used to customize the Dll files (Build and release method) and create custom actions in that build file and build it to MSI

Installshield Repackager is used to create MSI from Exe files and also customize existing MSI using transform file (no need to modify existing MSI instead we can create MST file to MSI and perform the customization to MST file and same file will be applied while deployment.)

Please let me know if you need further assistance.