Advanced Installer simplifies the process of building Windows Installer packages by providing a very easy to use, high level interface to the underlying technology. The program implements all the Windows Installer rules and follows all the advised best practices.
Here are some key features of "Advanced Installer":
MSI:
· Create valid MSI setups for your applications respecting all written and unwritten Windows Installer rules
UAC:
· Build installers that run flawlessly on Windows 7/Vista supporting their security model
Upgrades:
· Detect and upgrade older version of your product installed on the user's machine. Prevent installs over newer ones
Side-by-Side:
· Create packages for different versions of your application that can be installed simultaneously and run side by side
Imports:
· Import from Visual Studio, InstallShield LE, WiX, Eclipse, Inno Setup, NSIS and regular MSI/MSM packages
Fonts:
· Register fonts in the Windows OS. Specify registration names for non-TrueType fonts
Environment Variables:
· Create, append or prepend user or system environment variables
Autoregister:
· Auto registration, for files that support it, can be scheduled at install time
Files and Folders:
· Install and uninstall files and folders. Set attributes, create shortcuts
Registry:
· Install and uninstall registry keys and entries
64-bit:
· Build setups that run and install on 32-bit processors or on the latest 64-bit Intel and AMD CPUs
Template projects:
· Create templates based on your current project and ready-to-use for your future projects
Add/Remove:
· Customize your application's listing in the "Add/Remove Programs" page of Control Panel
XML projects:
· They can be easily checked into a version control system and shared between multiple developers
Command Line:
· Build your release packages in completely automated scripts, like Make, Ant or NAnt
Run&Log:
· Launch your MSI package while pretty printing the full Windows Installer log
Launch Conditions:
· Visually specify conditions necessary (applications, frameworks, etc.) for your package to run
Smart Formatted Editing:
· Editing (MSI)Formatted fields offers reference auto-completion, syntax and error highlights and resolved value hints
Per-User/Per-machine:
· Create installers that can be install as required: per-user or per-machine if the user is Administrator
Include Merge Modules:
· Include frameworks, libraries and other prepackaged dependencies into your installers with just a few mouse clicks
Requirements:
· Pentium 4 class CPU· 512 MB RAM
· 1024x768 screen resolution
· 256 MB hard drive space
· Windows Installer 2.0
What's New in This Release:
New features in this release:
· Windows 8 Consumer Preview support
· Silverlight applications support
· Import Visual Studio 11 projects
· Visual Studio 11 integration
· Adaptive fonts and text styles for enhanced UI
· Redesigned Media view
· NET Framework 4.5 predefined launch condition and prerequisite
· IIS 8.0 predefined launch condition
· Internet Explorer 10 predefined launch condition and search
· MySQL Server 5.5 predefined prerequisite
· SQL Server 2012 Express predefined launch condition and prerequisite
· Apache HTTP Server 2.2.22 predefined prerequisite
Enhancements to existing features:
· Added Run as Administrator option for "Launch file or open URL" custom action
· Improved upgrade behavior for multiple instances
· Added text styles support for hyperlink controls in enhanced UI
· Automatically remove sequence when deleting a custom action
· Automatically add stop slideshow event when using custom stop trigger
· Improved user account picker
· Disable service authentication controls when a service can interact with the desktop
· Moved all package language options in Translations view
· Improved action lists in Custom Actions view
Bug fixes:
· Crash when selecting AI_APP_FILE property in Table Editor
· Crash when building from command line using advinst.exe with ICE validation enabled
· Crash when moving a sequence in Custom Actions view
· Exception when icons are not extracted successfully from a file
· Crash when importing an MSI with a missing table referenced in Validation table
· Merge module CABs were not inserted in the EXE bootstrapper for mixed 32/64-bit packages
· Custom actions list was not sorted after renaming a custom action
· Feature builds were not saved correctly
· Custom icons for CommandLink buttons were not displayed in Dialog Editor
· Custom action targets were limited to 255 characters
· Browse for SQL servers wizard allowed duplicated entries
· Custom actions were not selected correctly from project summary view
· Scheduled tasks were not uninstalled if a repair was performed
· Dialogs did not support conditions which started with a string value
· Test installation UI failed for products which were not registered with Windows Installer
· Web installer with CAB per-feature did not leave the generated CABs in the output folder