InstallShield 2013 Express

What’s new in InstallShield 2013?

Support Enterprise Desktop Virtualization Adoption

• Build both physical installations and virtual application packages from the same build process (included with Premier edition). Includes support for Microsoft App-V 5.0.
• Ensure your software is compatible with enterprise application virtualization technologies, such as Microsoft App-V, VMware ThinApp and Citrix XenApp.

Simplify Installations of Complex Web/Server Applications 

• Automate installing Windows roles and features.
• Run PowerShell Scripts during installation setup.
• Use multi-tier templates to deploy Web/server applications as a single cloud-ready package.

Microsoft Windows 8 Advancements

• Validate installations against Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 best practices from Microsoft.
• Define which application shortcuts get pinned to the Windows 8 Start Screen.
• Deliver modern install experiences with new Wizard design capabilities.

64-bit installers

• Create pure 64-bit installations that use 64-bit custom actions.

What’s new in InstallShield 2012 Spring?

• Suite Installation Enhancements (Premier) - Import and reference PRQ files, dynamic links, advanced reporting and logging as well as a new UI for custom conditions
• Hybrid Cloud Deployments (Premier and Professional) - New SQL Azure database scripting capabilities enabling software producers to support hybrid cloud SQL deployments
• Better End-User Experience (Premier and Professional) - An entirely new end-user interface with redesigned wizard pages and a new page editor to create a better run-time experience
• Automatic Checking for Installer Updates and Patches (Premier and Professional) - Check for the latest updates and patches at installer runtime. If an update is found, it will automatically be downloaded and run in place of the old installer ensuring that users always have the latest version of the application installed.
• Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Support (Premier and Professional) - Gather accurate deployment metadata to populate the App Model
• PowerShell Support (Premier and Professional) - Including support for custom actions that run PowerShell scripts
• Support for Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and Visual Studio 11 (Premier, Professional and Express) - Build feature and component conditions for these operating systems and applications

What’s new in InstallShield 2012?

• Suite Installations (Premier) : Multiple products can be easily bundled together into a single, unified suite installation eliminating the need to develop a complex custom launcher or bootstrapper application.
• Installation Streaming (Premier) : End users will experience an “app store-like” feel by downloading just a small file to quickly start the suite installation.
• Installation Collaboration (Premier) : The Installation Collaboration feature has been significantly enhanced to better support distributed installation development allowing product developers to create and manage their portion of the installation   The InstallShield Premier edition includes 5 licenses to the new Developer Installation Manifest editor. 
• 64-Bit Enhancements (Premier and Professional) : 64-Bit and 32-Bit Windows Installer packages can be combined into a single installation eliminating the need to deliver two separate installations or creating a custom launcher. 
• Application Tagging (Premier and Professional): ISO 19770-2 software identification tag creation incorporated as part of the installation development process.
• Merge Module Projects (Premier and Professional) : Merge Module Projects now include built-In support for IIS, text file changes, and XML file changes
• Read-write property RequiredExecutionLevel (Premier and Professional) : The read-write property RequiredExecutionLevel has been added to the ISWiRelease object.
• Support for New Technologies (Premier, Professional and Express) : InstallShield includes several new InstallShield prerequisites that you can add to Basic MSI, InstallScript, and InstallScript MSI projects: Internet Explorer 9.0, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Native Client 10.50.1600.1, Windows Identity Foundation, Microsoft VSTO 2010 Runtime (x64), Microsoft App-V 4.6 SP1 Desktop Client (Professional and Premier with Virtualization only) and Microsoft Office 2010 PIA
• Predefined System Searches (Premier, Professional and Express) : InstallShield has new predefined system searches: Adobe Reader 10, Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Office 2003
• New End-User Interface (Premier, Professional and Express) : An entirely new end-user interface and redesigned, modern built-in wizard pages give full control over installation customization.
• Monitoring for COM Extraction (Premier, Professional and Express) : InstallShield 2012 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.
  

What’s new in InstallShield 2011?

• Integration with Microsoft Team Foundation Server (Express, Professional and Premier) - InstallShield 2011 now integrates with Microsoft Team Foundation Server. Now customers can use the familiar Visual Studio IDE to effectively manage their Visual Studio and InstallShield projects in a single environment. It allows customers to do continuous product and installation builds with minimum effort.
• .NET Framework 4 Prerequisites (Express, Professional and Premier) - InstallShield 2011 supports Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4, including the new .NET Framework 4 prerequisites that enable installations to check for and install required applications and components during runtime.
• Predefined System Searches (Express, Professional and Premier) - Have installers check if.NET Framework 4.0, SQL Server 2008 Express SP1, and Adobe Reader 9 are installed on a target system.
• Superior Support for Installing 64-Bit Applications (Professional and Premier) - InstallShield 2011 has enhanced functionality to author and support installation projects for 64-bit applications.
• New InstallScript Unicode Support (Professional and Premier) - InstallShield 2011 supports building Unicode InstallScript and InstallScript MSI installations, so installations will correctly display text in multiple languages regardless of the language on the target PC.
• Script Editor (Professional and Premier) - Spend less time typing code and avoid code error with new auto-completion functionality.
• Expiring Setup Launchers (Professional and Premier) - Prevent your end users from installing outdated versions of your applications.
• Build Events (Premier) - Eliminate the need to manage external script files by integrating new pre- and post-build events with your InstallShield build process.

What’s new in InstallShield 2010 SP1 Professional?

This service pack includes support for the market release of Windows 7 and Windows Installer (MSI) 5.0 from Microsoft.

What’s new in InstallShield 2010 Professional?

Windows 7 Support - InstallShield 2010 has the tools developers need to get a head start on supporting Windows 7. It makes it easy to create applications that meet Microsoft’s requirements for the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo. If software vendors haven’t certified their applications for Vista, the move to Windows 7 can be especially difficult. InstallShield 2010 has the technology to make it easy.

Windows Installer 5 Beta Support - Windows Installer 5 will be available with the future releases of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. But developers can take advantage of the new features now with InstallShield 2010’s support for the beta of Windows Installer 5. Now software running on Vista or XP can leverage the new MSI 5 features, including:

• Creating per-user applications
• Setting access permissions on objects
• Placing the new hyperlink control on dialogs
• Quicker installations for large packages

Windows Server 2008 R2 Support - InstallShield 2010 makes it easy to install applications on Windows Server 2008 R2. You can now specify that your installation requires Windows Server 2008 R2 and build conditions for features and components.

Displaying Installation Progress on the Taskbar - Installations that are run on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 now show a progress bar on the Windows taskbar during file transfer. This applies to InstallScript and InstallScript MSI installations. In addition, it applies to Basic MSI installations that display billboards that were configured in the Billboards view. Note that a progress bar is not displayed on the taskbar during setup initialization or while InstallShield prerequisites are being installed.

SQL Server 2008 SP1 Support - InstallShield 2010 now enables you to run SQL scripts on SQL Server SP1.

SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 SP1 Support - InstallShield 2010 now includes support for SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 SP1 for mobile device installations.

Improved IIS Tools for Web Application InstallationsInternet Information Services (IIS) is a Web server developed by Microsoft. It provides a secure platform for building and deploying Web-based applications, managing Web sites, and publishing information to the Internet or an intranet. InstallShield 2010 has significantly improved IIS-related functionality that makes it even easier to create and manage new IIS Web sites, Web applications, virtual directories, application pools, and Web service extensions. InstallShield 2010 has enhanced its Internet Information Services view to look similar to IIS 7. The settings are now displayed in grids, instead of on tabs. And the grids have buttons that let you sort the grid settings by category or alphabetically. Longtime users of InstallShield will notice and appreciate the difference right away.

InstallShield 2010 now gives developers the ability to add IIS Web applications to IIS Web sites and configure as needed. Plus, you can now create an IIS virtual directory without an application. Both enhancements were popular requests by the InstallShield community.

InstallShield 2010 has a new IIS Scanner that analyzes and records IIS data about a Web site’s settings – including its virtual directories, applications, and application pools – and imports it into the Internet Information Services view. So instead of having to waste time manually entering data, InstallShield 2010 finds it and adds it for you. Developers can then use that view to make any changes to the IIS settings.

In addition, InstallShield 2010 has new IIS settings that users have specifically requested, including:

Managed Pipeline Mode:  Specify the appropriate request-processing pipeline mode—either integrated or classic—for an application pool.

Enable 32-Bit Applications: Specify whether you want to allow 32-bit applications in the selected application pool to be run on 64-bit systems.

.NET Framework Version: Specify the version of the .NET Framework that an application pool should load.

ASP.NET Platform: For installations that may run on a 64-bit version of Windows with the .NET Framework, specify which ASP.NET platform should be used to map a Web site, application, or virtual directory to the ASP.NET version.

(IIS Scanner available in the Premier Edition only)

Virtual Machine Detection and Blocking - Virtual machines have been a licensing and compliance nightmare for software vendors. If you don’t want your products to run on virtual machines, InstallShield 2010 has the answer. It can now build installations that detect when they are being run on virtual machines like Microsoft Hyper-V and Virtual PC or VMware and optionally block the installation.

Support for 64-Bit COM Extraction - InstallShield 2010 now supports 64-bit COM extraction. If you are using InstallShield on a 64-bit system, it can extract COM data from a 64-bit COM server. In order to install the data to the correct locations, the component must be marked as 64 bit.

Setting Permissions for Files, Folders, and Registry Keys - For applications that run in locked-down environments, InstallShield 2010 has new functionality that significantly improved the way installations set files, folders, and registry keys at run time. Developers frustrated with the traditional Windows Installer LockPermissions option will appreciate the improvements, none of which are supported by the old option, including:

• Support for many well-known security identifiers (SIDs) such as guest, everyone, and administrator
• Support for localized user names, which could cause the installation to fail in the traditional option
• Denying a user or group from having the permissions you are specifying
• Adding permissions to a file, folder, or registry key that already exists on the target system, without deleting any existing permissions for that object
• Indicating whether you want permissions to be applied to all of a folder's subfolders and files
• Configuring permissions for a new user that is being created during the installation

Adding Prerequisites to InstallScript Projects - InstallShield 2010 now enables you to add InstallShield prerequisites to your InstallScript projects. InstallShield prerequisites are redistributables that usually install a product or technology framework required by your application. If you work on a mix of different project types, InstallShield 2010 lets you simplify your testing matrix by enabling you to reuse this type of redistributable in all of your Basic MSI, InstallScript, and InstallScript MSI projects.

New InstallShield Prerequisites

InstallShield includes a number of new InstallShield prerequisites that you can add to your projects, including:

• Windows Installer 4.5 (with Microsoft fix), 3.1, 3.0, and 2.0
• .NET Framework 3.0 SP1 and 2.0 SP2
• Internet Explorer 8
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP1 and 2005 Express SP3
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1
• Oracle 11g Instant Client 11.1.0.7
• CrystalReports Basic for Visual Studio 2008

Significantly Improved User Interface - Simply put, InstallShield 2010 gives developers the IDE they’ve been asking for. From new toolbars and views to customizable grids to dynamic search tools, this is by far the best user interface InstallShield has ever offered, saving developers a ton of time.

Some of the highlights include:

• Text File Changes view: This new view lets you configure search-and-replace behavior for content in text files (such as .txt, .htm, .xml, .config, .ini, and .sql files) that you want to modify at run time on the target system. The text files can be part of your installation, or they can be files that are already present on target systems.
• String Editor view: This new view contains a spreadsheet-like table that shows the collection of language-independent identifiers and corresponding language-specific values for your project. Get complete and centralized control over the localizable text strings that are displayed at run time during the installation process. Some highlights include a toolbar for adding and editing string entries and a group box area for sorting string entries by categories such as language and by modified date.
• Direct Editor view: When you select a table in this view, a new toolbar is displayed for adding, finding, and editing data in the table.
• Property Manager view:This view contains a new toolbar that has buttons for performing tasks such as adding and deleting properties. You can also drag and drop column headings onto a new group box area to organize the rows in the view in a hierarchical format.
• Redistributables view:The new toolbar and the new group box area in this view provide robust search and organizational functionality.
• Internet Information Services view: This view has been redesigned to look similar to IIS 7, making it much easier to use.
• General Information view:All of the settings in this view are displayed in one grid, instead of as separate grids associated with nodes. The settings are grouped into several categories to make them easier to find.
• Path Variables view:This view contains a new toolbar that has buttons for performing tasks such as adding and deleting path variables. It also has support for dynamic searches and a new group box area for organizing rows in a hierarchical format.

Unicode Support - InstallShield 2010 takes a three-pronged approach to fully supporting modern multi-language installations: Windows Installer databases can now be built in a Unicode format, InstallShield projects are now stored in a Unicode format, and the InstallShield interface now supports entering and viewing Unicode characters from multiple character sets at the same time.

New Billboard Support for MSIs - MSIs created with InstallShield 2010 can now display billboards to your end users during the installation process. Billboards are an ideal way to educate end users in new features and advertise other related products. Each billboard is a file that you or your company's graphics department creates for complete control over the look and feel of the file transfer. InstallShield 2010 supports the use of Adobe Flash application file (.swf), .bmp, .gif, .jpg, and more as billboards.

Expanded Billboard Support in InstallScript Projects - InstallScript and InstallScript MSI projects now let you use .gif, .jpg, and .jpeg files as billboards. Previously, only .bmp files were supported. InstallShield 2010 now also includes support for playing an Adobe Flash application file (.swf) on a background window during InstallScript and InstallScript MSI installations. Flash application files can consist of videos, movies, sounds, interactive interfaces, games, text, and more—anything that is supported by the .swf type of file.

Support for HTML Controls on InstallScript Dialogs - InstallShield 2010 includes support for HTML controls on dialogs in InstallScript and InstallScript MSI projects. HTML controls enable you to use HTML markup for dialog controls. You can include on dialogs links to Web pages, installed HTML files, and HTML support files. If an end user clicks the hyperlink on the runtime dialog, you can have the HTML page open in an Internet browser, or you can trigger other behavior that you have defined through your InstallScript code. The HTML control lets you use any valid HTML markup, including styles to control their appearance.

Service Pack 2 Release
SP2 contains support for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

What’s new in InstallShield 2009 Professional?

• Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008 Support - InstallShield is now integrated with Visual Studio 2008, enabling development of installations and products within the same Visual Studio interface
• Support for Managed-Code Custom Actions - InstallShield lets you add managed-code custom actions to Basic MSI, InstallScript MSI, Merge Module, and Web projects. This type of custom action calls a public method in a .NET assembly that is written in managed code such as Visual Basic .NET or C#.
• Support for Installing Multiple Instances of a Product - Support for creating an installation that allows an .msi package to be used to install multiple instances of a product in the same context on the same machine. Use the new Multiple Instances tab for a product configuration in the Releases view to define different instances of your product and configure the properties that are associated with each instance.
• Ability to Associate Setup Prerequisites with Features for Chaining Installations -Associate setup prerequisites with features so that the prerequisites that are associated with features are installed if an end user chooses to install the corresponding features and if the setup prerequisites are not already installed on the system. Including setup prerequisites in a project enables the chaining of multiple .msi files together into a single installation, bypassing the Windows Installer limitation that enables only one Execute sequence of an .msi package to be run at a time.
• Introduction of Value Added Services with Yahoo!® Toolbar availability - A new overall initiative for InstallShield, Value Added Services, such as the opportunity to include the Yahoo! Toolbar in an ISV’s end user installation experience, provides the opportunity for customers to leverage new revenue-generating features in InstallShield

What’s new in InstallShield 2008?

• Ability to Target Windows Vista Systems – InstallShield 2008 creates installations that are optimized for Windows Vista.
• Quality Validation Testing - Certified for Windows Vista Logo Validation – Scans your MSI installation to see if it meets Windows Vista installation requirements.
• InstallShield Best Practices Validation - In addition to verifying against Microsoft guidelines, InstallShield 2008 adds a new InstallShield Best Practices Validation Suite that provides additional validators for Basic MSI and InstallScript MSI projects.
• User Account Control Support – Control how your installation manages administrative rights under Windows Vista. Preserve the security benefits of UAC while creating a user-friendly optimized UAC prompts installation experience. Support for adding the UAC shield logo to your dialogs.
• New Dialog Themes for Basic MSI Projects - Easily change the themes for the dialogs in your projects to provide a new look and feel. You can preview of each dialog from within the Dialogs view
• SaaS Support (IIS 7 and SSL Support) - Support for IIS 7 and SSL technologies makes it easy for you to deploy Windows-based Web applications
• Latest Windows Mobile Platform Support - With support for Windows Embedded CE 6.x, you can easily create installations for mobile devices and expand your deployment to all Window CE platforms—including PocketPC and Smartphone, as well as all Palm handheld devices
• Enhanced! Support for Digital Signatures - With enhanced support for digital signing, you can now save time by digitally signing all your files at build time
• .NET 3.0 Support

What’s new in V12 SP2?

• A .NET Framework 3.0 setup prerequisite that you can add to Basic MSI and InstallScript MSI projects
• Ability to minimize the number of UAC prompts by advertising as part of prerequisite installation
• Enhanced validation for the Windows Vista quality program

What’s new in V12 SP1?

Service Pack 1 (SP1) for InstallShield 12 Professional and Premier - fully supporting the RTM version of Microsoft’s new operating system.

New features in SP1 include:

• A .NET Framework 3.0 setup prerequisite that you can add to Basic MSI and InstallScript MSI projects
• Ability to minimize the number of UAC prompts by advertising as part of prerequisite installation
• Enhanced validation for the Windows Vista quality program

What’s new in V12 Professional Edition?

• Support for Pocket PC Windows Mobile 5.0, Windows CE .NET 5.0, .NET Compact Framework 2.0, and DIFx 2.01
• Support for SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
• Visual C++ 8.0 Merge Modules
• InstallScript enhancements

What’s new in V12 Premier Edition?

• Includes all of the features of the Professional Edition
• The Repackager project conversion tool
• InstallShield Collaboration 5-pack license
• “Stand-Alone Build” licenses

InstallShield - The most widely used installation-authoring solution for creating high-quality Windows Installer, InstallScript™, server and mobile device installations.

InstallShield Key Benefits

• Support for the latest technologies, including Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005, .NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005
• Author reliable, professional-grade installations every time with intuitive wizards

InstallShield Top NEW Features and Functions

• Visual Studio 2005 Support
• .NET 2.0 Framework Support (MSI)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Support
• InstallShield Collaboration Module
• ClickOnce to MSI Converter
• ClickOnce Support
• Microsoft Build Engine (MSBuild) Support
• MSI Log Analyzer
• DIFx 2.0 Support (Basic MSI and InstallScript MSI)

Create High-Quality Installations Quickly and Easily
InstallShield Express helps you create reliable Windows and mobile device installations, via simplified views, quick rebuild capabilities and intuitive wizards. You can rapidly build, test, and implement installations within a day and without any training.

Support for the Latest Technologies and Industry Standards
InstallShield Express keeps you up-to-date with support for the latest technology and industry standards, including Windows Installer, IIS, and more.

Support for Windows Installer
With the Express Edition, you can use the functionality found in Microsoft's Windows Installer 3.1 release to simplify your patch deployment and improve performance.

Support for IIS
Simplify the deployment of Web services with support for Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). IIS introduces many new features that can help increase the reliability, manageability, scalability, and security of your Web application infrastructure.

Cost-Effective, High-Quality Installations
InstallShield Express provides value for setup authors with limited customization needs. It provides the most commonly required installation functionality at a fraction of the expected cost to help you better manage your installation projects and your budget.

.NET Support and Visual Studio .NET Integration
InstallShield is a setup solution for .NET software developers. You have the option of creating installations within the Visual Studio interface or using the intuitive InstallShield interface. You can also link the primary outputs of your .NET projects to your setups, scan .NET projects for file dependencies, configure .NET custom actions, and much more.

Benefits:

Jumpstart your installation using the Project Assistant’s simplified set of views. It quickly guides you through the installation process with no learning curve. Additional editing is enabled with a visual checklist of more detailed views dedicated to specific installation-authoring tasks.

Accelerate your installation process with built-in wizards. Quickly add an Express project to a Microsoft .NET or Smart Device project solution by simply browsing to it and letting a wizard run. Express includes project wizards for Visual Basic 6, Visual Basic .NET, C# .NET, C++ .NET, and Smart Devices. These offer a great way to kick-start your project.

The Express Edition provides the easiest route for creating installations that require redistributable technologies. You can easily select them as part of your setup, assigning them to one or more features of your application. Just visit the Live Redistributables Technology Gallery and check the items you would like to include. The redistributables view will tell you where to get these objects and merge modules, and allow for direct downloads. Over 70 redistributable technologies are already included such as, Access, BDE, Crystal Reports, DAO, MDAC, and MSDE.

Use the Compact Installer to create setups with one of the smallest overheads of any installation engine. Rapidly build installations with a very low overhead (less than 100k) that will be downloaded over the internet. Easily mark files that need to be overwritten at installation time by simply selecting the Always Overwrite function.

Easily add Web services to any installation. A single dedicated view allows you to quickly build all aspects of Internet Information Services (IIS), including creating Web sites and configuring virtual roots. With dialog text editing, you can improve your end-user’s experience by editing text, graphics, and other content in your user-interface dialogs.

Here are just some of the features available in InstallShield Express:

• Compact Installer - For setups that will be downloaded over the internet, the Compact Installer lets you quickly deploy an installation with the smallest overhead (less than 100 KB) of any installation engine
• Always Overwrite - Speed setup creation by marking files that will always need to be overwritten at installation time, regardless of version or modification date
• Live Redistributable Gallery - This live gallery contains over 70 merge modules, making it extremely easy to add support for popular technologies such as Crystal Reports, Microsoft Access, and MDAC in your project. Never waste time trying to find the required files and registry entries for these technologies. When new merge modules or objects are available, they will automatically appear in the gallery as downloadable options
• Visual Studio .NET Integration - Enjoy the convenience and familiarity of running Express completely inside the Visual Studio .NET shell or separately using its traditional IDE. Your views are integrated into the Visual Studio solution explorer and each view is presented as a workspace tab
• Mobile Device Support - Easily create installations for mobile devices and expand your deployment to all Window CE platforms, including PocketPC 2003 and Smartphone 2003, and all Palm handheld devices

Maintenance Plans
In addition to the resources of the support Web site, you are offered a number of maintenance plans that are fine-tuned to meet your specific needs. Each maintenance plan is per licensed user and allows you to submit unlimited support requests for 12 months.

The Yearly Bronze Maintenance Plan includes:

• All available paid upgrades to your product, guaranteed for twelve months from purchase date
• Protection against price increases for the duration of your plan
• Renewal notices sent automatically, to insure your plan against expiration
• A Maintenance Plan Card detailing all benefits and plan specifics
• 24 x 7 access to Knowledge Base
• 24 x 7 access to product Web Communities
• Sample Code, Sample Projects, and White Papers
• Technical Webinars / Online Product Demonstrations
• Unlimited Web-based requests using eService
• Hours of operations - Designated Time Zone

In addition the Silver Maintenance Plan includes:

• Unlimited telephone support requests
• Initial Response Time 16 Business Hours