Advanced Installer and other software authoring solutions (like Inno Setup, WiX, Wise, InstallShield, InstallAware, etc) generally perform the same common packaging roles (authoring or generating installer package, converting a packaging type into another, updating the installer)
Installaware Vs Advanced Installer
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Below is a list of popular third-party products and installers that support the ability to package a desktop application. You can use them to generate MSI installers or app packages with only a few clicks. While we don't produce documentation on how to use these tools, visit their websites to learn more.
Caphyon provides a free, GUI-based, desktop app packaging tool that helps you to generate a Windows app package for your application with only a few clicks. It can use any installer; even ones that run in silent mode, and performs a validation check to determine whether the application is suitable for packaging. This means that you can use your own virtual machines, without having to download a matching Docker image that can be over 3GB in size.
Because the FireGiant MSIX extension doesn't convert your installer by running it, you can maintain your WiX installer without having to repeatedly convert it to Windows app packages. All your users on different versions of Windows get your latest improvements and you don't have to worry about MSI and Windows app packages getting out of sync.
You can also import any setup, even if you don't have the source code for that setup, by using PackageAware (snapshot-free setup captures), or the Database Import Wizard (for all MSI installers and MSM merge modules). You can use GUI tools to maintain and enhance your imports, visually or by scripting.
With PACE Suite, you don't need to prepare special packaging environments or install additional Windows SDK components. PACE Suite can build Windows app packages independently in your standard packaging environment under Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016. Check out this illustrated example to learn how PACE Suite approaches repackaging an installer to a Windows app package.
However, in many cases you may already have an installer definition created with a 3rd party tool. Popular authoring tools, like Advanced Installer, InstallShield or Wix, are able to generate a MSIX package out from an installer project, making easier to reuse the work you may already have done to generate MSI installers in the past. Additionally, thanks to these tools, you have the opportunity to use the same project to generate at the same time a MSI and a MSIX, helping you to support customers who might not have migrated yet to Windows 10 and who are unable to use MSIX Core (for example, because it's a consumer application).
In the next step you will be asked to select which files, among the ones that are created as build output, belong to the application and must be included in the installer. The section will be split in two categories:
All the other steps are optional and apply mostly to the MSI setup: you can choose if you want to launch the application after having it installed; you can customize the UI of the installer; you can choose the languages you support; you can add a license agreement that will be displayed during the setup. After you have finished the wizard, Advanced Installer will bring you to the main UI of the application, where you can further customize the project. The tool offers tons of options: you can add support to services or custom actions, you can customize the manifest for the MSIX version, etc.
We're going to keep it simple, so we won't add any special configuration. However, there's a setting that is very important. Move to the Files and Folders section, which displays what and where the installer will copy on the user's machine. You will see a folder called Application folder, which is the location where the files which compose the application will be copied. However, you might see that not all the files are properly included.
It's a good starting point, since it already takes care of restoring the NuGet packages and building the code. The next step is to add the Advanced Installer tasks, so that the code can be converted into an installer. We're going to add two tasks: one to generate a MSI and one to generate a MSIX.
Now you can click on the link under the task name to start adding tasks. The first step is to sign the installer, to avoid the warnings by Windows that are displayed when you tried to install an untrusted installer. The easiest way to achieve this goal is to use an extension created by Stefan Kert called Code Signing. If you haven't already installed it on your Azure DevOps account, go on and install it.
Then click on the + symbol near Agent job, look for the Code Signing task and add it. You'll need to have a .pfx file with the certificate that you're going to use to sign the installer. You can acquire one from a public certificate authority or get it from your internal one if the installer is meant for enterprise deployment; alternatively, if you're just doing some tests, you can generate a self-signed certificate.
That's it. The next step is... well, it's up to you =) Now that the installer has been signed, you can add a task to deploy it in the place which makes more sense for you. For example, you can deploy it to a storage or a FTP, where the file will be linked by a web page. In my scenario, I'm using Azure Storage to store the file in a blob, so I'm using the task called Azure File Copy.
Remember to commit the updated .ai file to your repository every time you make any change to the Advanced Installer project. This way, you will trigger a new build and a new generation of the MSI and MSIX installers. As last step, if you truly want to enable a full CI/CD experience, remember to click, in the Release pipeline, on the lighting symbol in the Artifacts section and set to Enabled the Continuous Deployment Trigger.
There are many great 3rd party tools on the market that can help you in the process of creating installers and packages for your applications. Advanced Installer is one of them and one thing I have appreciated is the availability of an Azure DevOps task, which allows me to use one of the built-in hosted agents, without forcing me to maintain a dedicated agent with the required tools.
I'm currently doing some investigation on moving off of the installation package we currently use (Wise Installer 9) and moving to something that will handle things like Windows Vista, Windows 7 and 64-bit systems. Localization of the installers would be of benefit since we do have a number of French Canadian clients as well.
UPDATE, Aug.2018, a new and shorter option: How to create windows installer. Focused on summarizing MSI and its major benefits and to list the major tools available (with download links), as well as mentioning some new, trending deployment technologies.
For small development teams looking for a quick and easy way to deploy their applications, I guess Installshield and Advanced Installer are the most common "GUI based" tools. They provide a lot of features, and your will be able to deliver a setup quickly. As already stated, sometimes this is the only thing that is important. Very often in fact. It is, however, possible to deliver a great installer using WiX instead - but a lot more knowledge is required. There is a learning curve, and there are some severe limitations - particularly with regards to GUI at the moment - but the base technology is very solid and free. And importantly there are many other tools (list from ) as well that may be more appropriate for your task - particularly if it is a simple application that just needs basic deployment features. It is "unfair" that I haven't provided more information about these tools that are quite capable, but less commonly used or established.
On top of that though, it was needlessly complicated. Don't get me wrong - we were doing some reasonably complicated installers, with lots of conditional paths, merge modules, and sophisticated UIs, but even for that it was far, far too complex.
Inno Setup is very capable/flexible and there are generally multiple ways to accomplish a goal, which led to a steep learning curve. We are several versions behind their latest version (due to their upgrade cost structure). Because our products run on Widows, if we have to switch I might first research Microsoft's installer solution that comes with a MSDN subscription.
I am using the Advanced installer extension in Visual Studio 2019 to package a console application. It works fine except that it does not package/install any of the .config files (such as myexe.exe.config).
Advanced Installer Professional enables you to create professional projects by customizing them according with your advanced preferences. However, if you don't need to create complex MSI packages, you can opt for a simple project, which can be configured with just a few clicks.
WiX (Windows Installer XML) is a toolset that allows developers to build Windows installation packages through source codes. It is an excellent tool for all programmers to create installers for their applications and windows. It helps developers in processing the files and automating the build process with its command-line utilities.
The platform enables users to pre-process, compile, and link all the files to deal with multiple resources, source code files, and libraries. Along with the installers feature, this platform generates SQL databases by using the compiler extensions, and users can access these extensions by using the command line tools.
NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) is a Windows installer open-source professional software that provides internet distribution through flexible and small design. It provides a sustainable and stable solution for companies to install their software easily and without any hassle. A fully featured NSIS installer has an overhead of 34 KB only, making it one of the most efficient installers than others in the market. 2ff7e9595c
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