InstallShield 2012

Product Information

InstallShield 2012 makes creating reliable MSI installations, InstallScript installations and App-V virtual packages easy. With comprehensive support for Windows and the latest technologies you can quickly and easily deploy your applications. Plus InstallShield features comprehensive customisation capabilities to modify the functionality and look and feel of your installer to give your products a superior first impression - all easily accessible from the powerful IDE.

InstallShield 2012 introduces a range of new features including a new suite installation capability that enables multiple products to be bundled together in a single installer, new installation streaming functionality that can download additional data files during installation, improved installation collaboration functionality and licensing for teams, along with much more.

Plus with 3 separate editions - InstallShield Express, InstallShield Professional and InstallShield Premier, InstallShield 2012 has the flexibility and feature set to fit your budget and requirements.

New Features

What's new in InstallShield 2012

Suite installations - Premier edition only

Easily bundle multiple products together in a single, unified suite installation thus removing the need for complicated custom installation launchers and bootstrappers.

• A next generation setup launcher (Setup.exe) that can conditionally run multiple installations (.msi or .exe) and apply Windows Installer patches (.msp) as needed on target systems
• An entirely new end-user interface with redesigned built-in wizard pages and a new wizard page editor to provide richer user interface capabilities and full control over the user interface layout, text strings and dialog behavior
• An integrated progress bar that presents a unified, visual indication of the overall status of the entire suite installation process
• Settings to specify whether to have a single entry in Add or Remove programs
• A single installation that includes both 32-bit packages and 64-bit packages and runs only the appropriate packages on each target system.

Installation streaming - Premier edition only

Reduces the overall time required to download and install an application by starting with a small download that streams additional installation data. Based on the selected install options, only the required packages are downloaded from the web or extracted from the installation. Please note that Installation Streaming is only currently available with the new Suite project type.

It supports a range of options for specifying the run-time location of each package, including:

• On the Web, available for download by Setup.exe if needed
• Embedded in Setup.exe and extracted to the target system if needed
• Uncompressed and stored on the suite source media.

Installation collaboration - Premier edition only, requires InstallShield Collaboration

Significant enhancements have been made to the Installation Collaboration functionality to enable better distributed installation development practices. Product developers can thus each create and manage their own portion of the installation. Please note: the InstallShied Collaboration plug-in now requires the Premier Edition. The InstallShield Premier edition includes 5 licences for the new Developer Installation Manifest editor.

• A new project type called Developer Installation Manifest (DIM) which is a feature-sized collection of related items such as product files, shortcuts, registry entries, text file changes, IIS Web sites, and other elements that together make up a discrete portion of a product installation.
• A new Developer Installation Manifest Editor that can be separately installed and used by the entire product development team to create and manage their installation files. The manifest can then be dynamically or statically linked by the Installation Author to the product’s Basic MSI project – significantly streamlining and integrating the collaboration that is needed between product development and installation development – especially for decentralised, distributed teams.
• The InstallShield Premier Edition includes 5 licenses of the Developer Installation Manifest Editor, enabling product development teams to immediately start working collaboratively.

Software identification tagging

Create a ISO 19770-2 software identification tag as part of the installation development process. The tag contains accurate descriptive information about the application including publisher name, product edition, product version, and whether it’s part of a bundle. Enterprise Software Asset Management tools collect the tags to provide accurate application identification for installed software.

• Automatically creates the ISO 19770-2 tag during the installation development process and ensures it is deployed as part of the application’s install
• Enhanced General Information view to manage the required metadata element
• Installs the tag in the locations as defined by the standard.

64-bit enhancements - Professional/Premier only

Combine 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Installer packages into a single installation removing the need for two separate installations or custom launchers (only available for Suite installations), plus:

• Updated dependency scanners to identify 64-bit dependencies of the 64-bit files in a project;
• Support for setting permissions for files, folders and registry keys in 64-bit locations;
• A prerequisite that installs the 64-bit version of the Microsoft VSTO 2010 Runtime.

New technologies

InstallShield 2012 includes support for a range of new technologies, including:

• New prerequisites that install Internet Explorer 9, SQL Server 2008 R2 Native client, Windows Identify Foundation, and more.
• Plus have installations check if Adobe Reader 10, Internet Explorer 9, or Microsoft Office (2010, 2007, or 2003) are installed on a target system.

And much more...

InstallShield 2012 also includes a range of other enhancements:

• InstallShield supports a new monitoring method for COM extraction. The method uses a kernel driver to monitor the areas of the registry that are modified during dynamic COM extraction at build time and static COM extraction at design time. It combines the advantages that the earlier methods provided, allowing the DLL to read existing registries entries and preventing changes to the build machine (available in Express too).
• Merge Module Projects now include built-In support for IIS, Text File Changes, and XML File Changes. Previously, these views were available only in installation projects (not available in Express).
• The read-write property RequiredExecutionLevel has been added to the ISWiRelease object. This property corresponds with the Required Execution Level setting on the Setup.exe tab for a release in the Releases view. This property is available for Basic MSI, InstallScript, and InstallScript MSI projects (not available in Express).

Features

Complete Windows Support

The InstallShield name has been well known in installers for Windows desktops for over 20 years but InstallShield also works with servers, web applications and mobile devices:

• Easily create Windows 7 and Vista Logo Certified setups
• Get support for Microsoft’s latest products, including Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4, Internet Explorer 9 and MSBuild
• Expand installations to servers and Web services, including IIS, Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2008 R2
• Target mobile devices with support for Windows Mobile 6.x, Windows Embedded CE 6.x, SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 SP1, and PalmOS 3.5 and later

Easy to learn

Easily create professional installers for simple or complex products:

• Tailor the look and feel of installation dialogs with the Visual Dialog Editor
• Includes InstallScript, an easy to use programming language that gives you maximum flexibility in your installations
• Maintain a clean build system with the Standalone Build licensing model
• Simple to use patch and upgrade creation, debugging, and build report tools to substantially increase installation quality
• Use the new Suite installation development capabilities for bundling multiple products into one installer (Premier edition)
• Use Installation Streaming technology to quickly begin installations and download additional files as required (Premier edition)

Quick to use

InstallShield is a simple, easy-to-use solution to help ensure you meet your deadlines:

• Powerful IDE with dynamic searching, auto completion, wizards, templates and pre-built objects
• Project Assistant walks you through the installation creation process
• InstallShield Best Practices Validation Suite (Premier edition) helps to ensure you avoid potential installation issues
• Collaborate on installation projects across decentralised, distributed teams with InstallShield Collaboration (Premier edition)

App-V Support

InstallShield supports the creation of Microsoft App-V virtual packages for deployment of virtual applications (note: App-V support requires the Virtualization Pack):

• Create conflict-free product evaluations and adopt application virtualisation in your own environment
• InstallShield can simultaneously build an MSI file and an App-V virtual package
• Convert your legacy MSIs to App-V packages in minutes.
• Supports 32-bit and 64-bit App-V packages

And much more...