Visual Studio Installer vs. P&DW

well MS must have done something right when they made it or it wouldnt be used to install Office.

I would definatly recomend visual studio installer, because that uses windows installer as the installer,

ok, I have got to refrase that sentance some how....

I also recomend innosetup
http://www.jrsoftware.org

its free.

BTW you have to have visual interdev to use visual studio installer.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the VSI is the same one Microsoft uses (you've used it when you installed Developer/Visual Studio).

You can also download Windows Installer too. (Which is the once that Office2000 uses)

Here are some of the Advantages

• More customizable Dialogs (Readme, License, User Info etc.)
• CAB/Zip Setup
• Self-Extracting Setup.
• Internet Setups.
• Registry options
• Easy-to-use GDE (Graphical Development Enviornment)

so WI and VSI are different?


where can I download WI?
and is it free?

[Joacim Andersson]

Windows Installer files are what Visual Studio Installer creates. These files are smaller then regular EXE files but since they aren't EXE files they can't run by them selfs. Just like VBS files can't run without the scripting run-time you need Windows Installer to install Windows Installer files.

Windows Installer is a part of the new Windows OS (98/2000) but need to be installed on Win95 & WinNT.

You can package the Windows Installer with the setups you create with VSI though, so you can install the packages you create even if the end users don't have Windows Installer installed on there system.

I hope this will clear somethings up even if I myself hardly understand what the heck I wrote in the last paragraph

I know all about the runtimes,
there is an option in the VSI IDE that allows you to choose to package the run-times with it,
I think it uses install-shield express or something to install the needed DLL(s).

[Joacim Andersson]

Yes, the option to include the run-time files for Windows Installer is what I meant with my fuzzy explanation:

You can package the Windows Installer with the setups you create with VSI though, so you can install the packages you create even if the end users don't have Windows Installer installed on there system.

I don't think they use install shield though. It's just two CAB files (one for Win95 and one for WinNT) and a simple boot strap EXE program.

thats right!
it was some other person I knew that used installshield or something to install the WI files.