forum.vdsworld.com

[jules]

[jules]

[jules]

[JRoza]

GKsetup is a very nice installer too and is available in free and payed versions.

[Serge]

thanks for all your replies

serge

[PGWARE]

While InnoSetup packs a large installer the newer version is much smaller then before (version 5).

Also Inno is very good as it is fairly bug free since it has been tested by thousands of developers. It's probably the most stable installer product I have tried and is the reason I use it. I've had problems with many installer products (installshield being the biggest problem), and found Inno to be the most reliable everytime. I do not get any emails from users telling me there is a problem with the installer or it wont run correctly; I did have that problem when using other installer products in the past.

Yes it may be bulky but you also certain you're getting reliability which IMHO is much more important then size.

Size isn't everything, It's how you use it.

[jules]

Size makes a difference if you want to distribute programs that are very small, such as VDS EXEs to people who already have a VDS runtime. For example, my Tech-Pro Utilities consist of a core package (which includes the VDS runtime and some other core DLLs) and a number of optional add-in packages. If each add-in included a 250K installer overhead the bandwidth consumed would be 5 times greater. Because of this, I have been interested in looking at small in size installer packages.

I recently did a comparison of several packages, to see what the overhead is. I used each of them to build an identical package, consisting of a small VDS EXE without the runtime. The results were:

30KB: Little Setup Builder from Pablo Software Solutions (free: http://www.pablovandermeer.nl/.) This was also the easiest to use, but the least functional and the appearance is dated.

38KB Nullsoft Installer (Old GUI) (free: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/home/) This was not quite fully functional (no screen to change the start menu shortcut folder name) and was by far the hardest to use. It is also not especially pretty. It is very powerful once you get the hang of it.

42KB Tech-Pro Setup Builder (not currently available) This is the one I wrote. It uses the VDS runtime that would already be on the user's system, or is included in the package, so its small size is to some extent cheating. It is script based but really quite easy to use, and looks quite attractive (I think so, anyway. ) The functionality is tailored towards the installation of VDS or Delphi programs.

53KB AGInstaller (shareware, http://www.agentix.org/) This is quite powerful and reasonably easy to use once you have got used to the script format. However, the interface looks a bit dated and it allegedly won't run on Japanese Windows systems; the developer has never responded to my reports of this. Edit: If this installer has to replace a file that is in use after a reboot then it does not have the correct access permissions and is inaccessable to a non-admin user. If the file is a DLL this can result in weird errors.

71KB Nullsoft Installer (Modern GUI) (see above) This looks much better than the old version and is fully functional, and can be extended using a powerful script language, but it is really hard to use.

238KB Tech-Pro Setup Builder (not currently available) This is a version of my installer built as a VDS 5 integrated runtime using the VDS 6 IDE. This is therefore more fairly comparable to the other packages when used for non-VDS applications.

272KB Inno Setup 5 (free: http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php) It is hard to beat this package for the price, it is reliable and widely used and tested, and produces packages that look decent. It is easier to use than Nullsoft.

293KB Inno Setup 4 (see above) Until I read PG's posting I hadn't realised a new version of Inno was out. I'm glad to see that some of the bloat has been reduced.

If you are interested to see the installer I created using VDS then you can download a demo package at http://www.tech-pro.net/files/tpsdemo.exe. You'll need to already have a VDS runtime. I have only just finished this, so any comments, observations, bugs noticed or whatever, will be welcomed.

[jules]

[Serge]

not yet, jules

i did download it but did not want to install it on my desktop so i was going to check it out on my laptop

will let you know

serge

[Serge]

the NEXT button is disabled when you first click on NEXT and then on BACK which means that if you go back you can no longer go forward

is it normal to display the llist of PARAM at the end?

serge

[jules]

[jules]

Here's one good reason for not using some uinknown or home-grown installer. Under NT/XP, if an installer has to replace a file that is in use after a reboot, it may not give it the right access permissions, so the file is inaccessable to a non-admin user. If the file is a DLL, this can cause very strange errors. What's worse, the file retains this (lack of) permissions if it is subsequently updated normally, so complete deletion and reinstallation is the only solution.

Of the installers I tested above, only Inno Setup and the Pablo installer (which uses a Windows .inf file to do the installation) worked correctly in this situation. The Nullsoft installers don't have the capability to replace a file that is in use, as far as I can see, you just have to skip the file or abort the installation.

[Mac]

This may be a dumb suggestion...

But can't an installer just kill the running processes
that are using the file, replace the file, then reboot?

Obviously this would not work on OS system files,
but I would think that is seldom necessary.

Cheers, Mac

[Hooligan]

Not if it doesn't have permission to do that... Again, these usually require admin rights...

Hooligan

[Mac]

Ah ok - thanks

Cheers, Mac