Anyone have experience using installatuon packages such as InstallSheild, Wise, Ghost, etc? Before I plunk down some money to buy one I want to make sure it’s appropriate for my needs.
I have a simple VB program I need to install so that it runs on startup. I also need to prompt the user for a user ID and put an entry in the registry, and install a .dll file.
I want something easy to use but still professional looking. Any recommendations?
NSIS. It’ll do everything you want, the overhead is small, and it’s free.
That looks interesting. I like the “free” part. Have you used it?
Inno Setup is another one worth considering. It’s also free. I’ve used it many times.
I’ve done a lot of work with InstallShield. For what you want to do, it’s hitting a tack with a sledgehammer. Go with the free stuff.
For commercial products. I recommend it strongly.
Assuming that you’re programming in VB.NET, is there something you need that Visual Studio Installer doesn’t do?
Hmm, I guess I’ll need to look at that as well.
Haven’t used it in half a decade or so, but I used to depend on WISE to create installers with fairly sophisticated features for a commercial software product. Given that I’m not a programmer, I found it to have exactly the right mix of power and flexibility without requiring me to spend six months studying it. It’ll do everything you’ve mentioned (registry entries, .DLL registration, user input, etc.) and a lot more as well. I actually had to configure it to call a custom DLL (for validation of the serial number) which was simple enough that even I could do it.
It does sound like NSIS will also do everything I was able to do in WISE back in the day, and for free to boot, but since you mentioned WISE and no one else had weighed in with an opinion on it yet I decided to stick my oar in.