Sharing Virtual Machine Settings for Distribution of Releases

InstallShield 2024

Edition:The ability to distribute releases to virtual machines is available in the Premier edition of InstallShield.

Project: This information applies to the following project types:

Basic MSI
InstallScript
InstallScript MSI
Suite/Advanced UI

You can configure releases in your projects so that after each successful build of your installation, InstallShield automatically reverts a virtual machine (VM) to a designated snapshot, powers on the VM, and copies your installation to the VM to make it available for testing. You can also alternately perform these testing preparation steps on demand at any time.

When you use the Configuration setting on the Events tab for a selected release in the Releases view to configure VM details, InstallShield writes the data that you specify to a file called VMConfigurations.xml. This VMConfigurations.xml file is a machine-wide file that you can configure once and then use it in other InstallShield projects, as well as share it with other team members. You can also use this file with the Standalone Build.

The following instructions explain how to share this global file with others.

To share the customized VM configuration settings file with another machine that has InstallShield or the Standalone Build:

1. On your development machine, configure the VM settings for a release in one of your projects. To learn how, see Distributing Releases to a Virtual Machine that InstallShield Provisions at Build Time or on Demand.
2. Close InstallShield.
3. Find the VMConfigurations.xml file that is installed with InstallShield, and make a copy of it for the other machine. VMConfigurations.xml is installed in one of the following locations, depending on which language version of InstallShield you are using:
EnglishInstallShield Program Files Folder\Support\0409
JapaneseInstallShield Program Files Folder\Support\0411
4. Create a back-up copy of the VMConfigurations.xml file that is on the other machine, in case you later need to revert to the original version, and then overwrite the installed version with the one from your development machine.

If you use the Standalone Build to build a release, update the VMConfigurations.xml file that is installed with the Standalone Build. VMConfigurations.xml is installed in one of the following locations, depending on which language version of InstallShield you are using:

EnglishStandalone Build Program Files Folder\Support\0409
JapaneseStandalone Build Program Files Folder\Support\0411

Tip:If you make any manual changes to the XML file in a text editor, ensure that your XML code is well formed; if it is not well formed, you may have problems using InstallShield. In most cases, you can identify improperly formed XML code by opening the VMConfigurations.xml file in Internet Explorer. You should be able to expand and contract the <VMConfigurations> element; if you cannot, check the code for errors.

See Also