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Upgrading to the Premier or Professional Editions of InstallShield
InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition
If you find that your installation needs outgrow the functionality that is available in the Express edition of InstallShield, you can easily take your existing project and use it to create an installation with the Premier or Professional editions of InstallShield. The Premier and Professional editions have greater customization features that more complex installations require.
Features that Are in Only the Premier Edition
Following is a list of some of the features that are available in the Premier edition but not the Professional or Express editions:
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Ability to create and build Suite/Advanced UI installations—Create a bootstrap application with a modern, customizable user interface for multiple .msi packages, .msp packages, InstallScript packages, .exe packages, and Windows Installer transactions, as well as multiple InstallShield prerequisites. A Suite/Advanced UI installation packages together multiple separate installations as a single installation while providing a unified user interface; it uses a setup launcher (Setup.exe) to conditionally launch packages on target systems as needed. |
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Support for DIM files—The ability to create DIM projects is available in the Premier edition of InstallShield. This support is also available in the InstallShield Developer Installation Manifest Editor, a collaboration add-on. The ability to add DIM files to Basic MSI projects is available in the Premier edition of InstallShield. |
A DIM project 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. Working with DIMs enables multiple team members to contribute to the development of the installation simultaneously. Each software developer or other team member can work on a separate DIM that the release engineer can reference in one or more installation projects.
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Multilingual installations—Create a single installation that displays end-user text in multiple languages and can handle conditional installation of language-specific files. Change dialogs and messages to any one of 34 additional languages using pre-translated strings. Add unsupported languages, beyond the built-in languages, to projects. |
Project: Note that support for two of those languages—Arabic (Saudi Arabia) and Hebrew—is available in only Basic MSI and Merge Module projects.
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Arabic (Saudi Arabia) and Hebrew language support—InstallShield Premier Edition includes support for Arabic (Saudi Arabia) and Hebrew languages, which are written and read from right to left. All of the default end-user dialog strings are available in these languages. |
Since these languages are read from right to left, the Premier edition also includes support for mirroring Arabic and Hebrew dialogs; that is, InstallShield uses a right-to-left layout for Arabic and Hebrew dialogs. Thus, for example, buttons that are on the right side of dialogs in English and other left-to-right languages are moved to the left side of right-to-left-language dialogs.
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Ability to specify commands that run before, during, and after builds—InstallShield Premier Edition includes release settings that you can use to specify commands that you want to be run at various stages of the build process. You can schedule commands that run at the following build events: (a) before InstallShield starts building the release, (b) after InstallShield has built the .msi package and the .cab files (if your product's data files are to be stored in .cab files), but before the .msi package has been digitally signed and streamed into the Setup.exe file, and (c) after InstallShield has built and signed the release. |
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Extra licenses for InstallShield MSI tools—InstallShield includes several tools: InstallShield MSI Diff, InstallShield MSI Query, InstallShield MSI Sleuth, and InstallShield MSI Grep. You can use these tools to troubleshoot issues with Windows Installer packages. InstallShield Premier Edition includes a separate installation and extra licenses that let you install just the InstallShield MSI tools, without InstallShield, on separate machines. For specific terms, see the End-User License Agreement for the InstallShield MSI tools. |
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Ability to import IIS data from existing IIS Web sites into a project—InstallShield includes an IIS scanner (IISscan.exe), a command-line tool for scanning an existing IIS Web site and recording IIS data about the Web site. The IIS scanner creates an XML file that contains all of the settings for the Web site, its virtual directories, its applications, and its application pools. You can use the XML file to import the IIS data into the Internet Information Services view in InstallShield Premier Edition. Once you have imported the IIS data into a project, you can use the Internet Information Services view to make changes to the IIS settings as needed. |
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Repackager project conversion tool—Installations created for the Windows Installer service dramatically differ from traditional installations, making it impossible to reuse legacy installations without a repackaging tool. Repackager assists you by capturing the data placed on your system during installation and converting it into a Windows Installer package, which you can then customize and distribute according to your organization's needs. |
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Try and Die Type of Trialware—Create a fully functional trial version of you product with a few simple configuration changes without the need to modify your product's source code. This type of trialware lets you offer prospective customers a fully functional trial version of your product. After the predetermined trial limit has been reached on an end user's machine, the trial version expires, and it no longer runs on that machine. |
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Network repository—A network repository is a collection of installation elements that multiple installation authors can access and reuse in their projects as needed. A network repository fosters collaboration among installation authors; it is stored on a network. |
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InstallShield Best Practice Suite—InstallShield includes a set of validators called the InstallShield Best Practice Suite. The InstallShield Best Practice (ISBP) validators in this suite alert you if your installation violates best-practice guidelines. |
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Additional Dialog Themes—Several dialog themes are available only in the Premier edition of InstallShield. |
Features that Are in Only the Premier and Professional Editions
Following is a list of some of the features that are available in the Premier and Professional editions but not the Express edition:
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Ability to create and build Advanced UI installations—Create a bootstrap application with a modern, customizable user interface for a single .msi package, .msp package, or InstallScript package, as well as multiple InstallShield prerequisites. An Advanced UI installation uses a setup launcher (Setup.exe) to conditionally launch packages on target systems as needed. |
(Note that the Suite/Advanced UI functionality in the Premier edition of InstallShield includes extended support for this functionality: The Suite/Advanced UI functionality enables you to package multiple .msi packages, .msp packages, InstallScript packages, .exe packages, and Windows Installer transactions, as well as multiple InstallShield prerequisites into a single installation with a modern, unified, customizable user interface.)
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Standalone Build—This tool, which is available with the Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield, enables you to install only the part of InstallShield that builds the installations, plus any redistributables that you want to include, on a build machine. Extra licenses of the Standalone Build are available for purchase. |
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Dialog Editor—The Dialog Editor enables you to modify the layout of existing end-user dialogs or create new custom dialogs. Import and export dialogs to share them across projects. Construct different dialogs for each language supported in the project. |
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Virtualization support—The Microsoft App-V Assistant is included in the Virtualization Pack, which is available for purchase with the Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield. Use this assistant to create customized virtual applications in the Microsoft App-V format. Virtualization enables you to isolate an application in its own environment so that it does not conflict with existing applications or modify the underlying operating system. |
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InstallShield MSI tools—The Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield includes several tools: InstallShield MSI Diff, InstallShield MSI Query, InstallShield MSI Sleuth, and InstallShield MSI Grep. You can use these tools to troubleshoot issues with Windows Installer packages. |
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Automation interface—Use script to add new files, add or delete features, change the product name and upgrade code, change release settings, change summary information stream items, change release flags, change any property, initiate the build process, and more. |
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Release customization—Define which project segments to compress, which features to place on which disk, and which languages to include. Choose to filter application data based on language to support localization efforts. |
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Source code control integration—Simplify the process of checking projects in and out of your source code control system and save space when differencing projects. The SCC integration in the Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield supports integration with various source code control systems. |
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Flexible localization support—The Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield include a String Editor view, which gives you complete and centralized control over the localizable text strings that are displayed at run time during the installation process. You can use this view to edit the strings for everything from button text to feature descriptions. This view also includes support for exporting string entries (which you can have translated) and for importing translated string entries back into your project. |
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Project validation—Use standard .cub files to validate installations and merge modules. Use the upgrade and patching validation to find out about potential upgrade problems and resolve them before you release your upgrades and patches. |
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Patch creation—In addition to enabling you to create QuickPatch projects, the Premier and Professional editions let you create standard patches that contain updates to a previous version of your product. |
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Manage multiple product versions—Build versions such as Evaluation, Debug, Standard, and Advanced—from a single project. Allow specific features, InstallShield prerequisites, and other elements to be chosen for inclusion in (or exclusion from) a release through user-defined flags. |
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Support for InstallScript—The Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield include support for InstallScript, a simple but powerful programming language. You can add InstallScript custom actions to Windows Installer–based installations or create InstallScript projects, which use the InstallScript engine instead of the Windows Installer engine to control the entire installation. |
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Flexible custom action support—The Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield include support for several custom action types that are not available in the Express edition. These extra custom action types enable you to do the following: set a property, set a directory, call a public method in a managed assembly, run a PowerShell script, terminate a process, or display error message under certain conditions and abort the installation. |
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Merge module authoring and editing—Package pieces of a project for reuse across application installations. Reuse those you create or any of the ones included in the product. Edit and open modules for greater customization. |
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Project templates—Create project templates that contain all of the default settings and design elements that you want to use as a starting point when you create an installation project or merge module project. |
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Multiple IIS Web sites—The Express edition of InstallShield lets you install only one Web site per installation. The Premier and Professional editions let you install more than one Web site per installation. |
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Support for IIS application pools and Web service extensions—Install and manage IIS application pools and Web service extensions. |
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SQL support—Connect to SQL servers, import database schema and data, associate SQL scripts with features, and more with SQL support. |
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Ability to modify text files or XML files—Use the Text File Changes view or the XML File Changes view to configure files that you want to modify on the target system at run time. |
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64-bit support—Add 64-bit support to your installations. |
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InstallShield Prerequisite Editor—Use this tool to create new InstallShield prerequisites and modify existing ones. |
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Scheduled tasks support—Configure one or more tasks that you want to be created through the Windows task scheduler at run time on target systems. |
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Custom icons for Setup.exe and Update.exe—Specify a custom icon (.exe, .dll, or .ico file) that you want to use for Setup.exe and Update.exe files that you create at build time. The icon is displayed on the Properties dialog box for Setup.exe and Update.exe; this Properties dialog box opens when end users right-click the Setup.exe or Update.exe file and then click Properties. End users can also see the icon when they view your Setup.exe file in Windows Explorer. |
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Expiration dates for Setup.exe—Set an expiration date, as well as an expiration message, for Setup.exe. If end users try to run Setup.exe on or after the date that you have specified in your project, the expiration message is displayed, and the installation exits. |
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Support for installation of multiple packages using transaction processing—Windows Installer 4.5 and later include support for installing multiple packages using transaction processing. The Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield let you add chained .msi packages to an installation project. Your package, plus the added .msi packages, are chained together and processed as a single transaction. If one or more of the packages in the transaction cannot be installed successfully or if the end user cancels the installation, the Windows Installer initiates rollback for all packages to restore the system to its earlier state. |
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Ability to export and reuse various project elements—Increase efficiency by moving pieces of an existing project (dialogs, custom actions, or features) to a merge module or another installation project. |
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Multiple-instance support—Create an installation that lets end users install multiple instances of a product on the same machine and in the same user context. |
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Device driver support—Device driver support in the Premier and Professional editions simplifies the process of installing device drivers from installation using the Driver Installation Frameworks for Applications (DIFxApp) from Microsoft. |
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ClickOnce support—The Premier and Professional editions include a ClickOnce Deployment project type, which provides a lightweight application deployment mechanism that is easy to use. The new ClickOnce Assistant guides you through the project creation process, providing pertinent information along the way. |
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Additional Dialog Themes—Several dialog themes are available only in the Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield. The Express edition contains only two themes. |
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Conversion of Visual Studio merge module projects—The Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield let you convert a Visual Studio merge module project to an InstallShield merge module project; this is necessary if you want to build a merge module for consumption in other projects. |
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COM+ application proxy support—Manage COM+ application proxies during your installation. A COM+ application proxy consists of a subset of the attributes of the server application, and it enables remote access from a client machine to the machine where the application resides. |
For additional details about the features that are included with each edition, contact InstallShield Sales, or visit http://www.installshield.com.