InstallSite Blog

Upgrade offer for old InstallShield and AdminStudio versions

There's currently a special offer that allows owners of InstallShield and AdminStudio to upgrade to the current version at a reduced price. InstallShield versions older than 11.0 and AdminStudio versions older than 7.0 are no longer entitled to regular upgrade pricing. However users of these version can now get a 30% discount off the full version when ordering before May 30.

The offer applies to the following product versions (overview, please send your serial number for detailed verification):

For upgrades to InstallShield 2008 Premier, Professional or Express:

• InstallShield X and 10.5
• InstallShield DevStudio 9
• InstallShield Developer 7.x -8.x
• InstallShield Professional 5.x-7.x
• InstallShield for Windows Installer 1.x-2.x
• InstallShield 3
• InstallShield X Express
• InstallShield Express 2.x-5.x

For upgrades to AdminStudio 8.6:

• AdminStudio 1.x-6.x

This is a good chance to move to a supported version if you didn't upgrade for a longer timer. If you want to take advantage of this offer, please don't wait for the last day. Verifying the serial number of your (very) old product may require some research and discussion with the manufacturer, which might take a few days.

For owners of supported versions (InstallShield 11.0-12.0 and AdminStudio 7.0-8.5) there's also a discount offer: they will receive 10% off the upgrade price when ordering before May 30.

For more information and ordering:
InstallSite Shop

Meeting with the Windows Installer Team

Yesterday, as part of the Microsoft MVP Global Summit, I was sitting down with the Windows Installer team: Tyler Robinson (PM), Hemchander "Hem" Sannidhanam, Mark Rovetta (doc writer), and Carolyn Napier (dev lead). We had some great discussions, but unfortunately most of the topics are under NDA.

But I think I can share a bit of what I told them: I thanked Hem for his recent posts on the MSI Team Blog about new features in MSI 4.5, and I encouraged him and the other team members to keep blogging more frequently. I also asked them to blog not only about new features and major changes, but also about seemingly small improvements and fixes. Typically, there are no comprehensive release notes when a new version of Windows Installer ships, and the blog could compensate for this.

For me, one important takeaway from the meeting was that the MSI team is really willing to improve Windows Installer. They are taking user concerns and requests serious. In the past they haven't always been able to address these, but I think we can expect some improvement in the time to come. (Sorry that I can't be more specific, but keep an eye on their blog)

Traveling to the Microsoft MVP Summit

On April 1st, Microsoft has awarded me (again) as a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in the area of Setup & Deployment:

click to enlarge

Each year, MVPs are invited to a global summit at Seattle and on the Microsoft campus in Redmond. This is a great chance to meet with the Windows Installer team, other Microsofties and fellow MVPs . So I'll be traveling to Seattle from April 12-19. The schedule is filled with sessions from early morning until late in the evening (we'll have some fun, too :) ). Therefore I apologize in advance for being slow in replying to e-mails and not checking the forums frequently.

Tarma Installer 5 released

Press release from Tarma Software Research Pty:

Tarma Software Research announces the release of Tarma Installer 5. Tarma Installer 5 helps you to create installation ("Setup") programs for your own software product. Major new features of Tarma Installer 5 include support for x64 Windows versions, .Net support, fully editable installer dialogs and dialog sequences, fully editable installer action sequences, and comprehensive localization support.

With Tarma Installer 5 you can install and remove programs, documents, images, multi-media files, TrueType® and OpenType® fonts, .Net assemblies, ActiveX controls, COM servers, type libraries, WinHelp files, device drivers, services, registry updates, INI files, environment variables, program groups, shortcuts, and third-party tools.

The Tarma development environment, its project files, and the Tarma installation database and Setup program are Unicode-based from the ground up to ensure that all localization remains intact. Tarma installer 5 supports feature and component based installation as well as add-on and update installers and can import MSI merge modules.

The development environment is intuitive and easy to use and boasts more than 500 different preflight checks to spot potential problems before you deploy your installation. Tarma Installer 5 is small, fast, and has excellent compression, making your installation packages as compact as possible, thus saving download time and disk space.

To evaluate Tarma Installer 5, users can download an unlimited trial version from the company's website.

• Product information and trial download
• 20% discount coupon for InstallSite users

Web Server Maintenance - Back online

The web server which is hosting parts of InstallSite (like the forum) is currently offline after a hard disk failure. It should be back within a few hours. I apologize for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: The server is back online. Took longer than expected  - sorry.

One-Click Install (OCI) Security Vulnerability in InstallShield 12

A security vulnerability has been reported in the One-Click Install ActiveX control in InstallShield 12. The problem only exists in the InstallScript project type; Basic MSI and InstallScript MSI are not affected. The vulnerability only exists in InstallShield version 12. A fix is available. If you are using One-Click Installs (OCI) in InstallShield 12 you should install the fix, rebuild your setup and update your HTML code with the new control.

• InstallShield knowledge base article Q113640

Acresso Software now owns InstallShield etc.

As of today, Acresso Software is the new company that produces the InstallShield, InstallAnywhere, AdminStudio and FLEXnet product families.

Back in February, Macrovision Corp. announced that they are selling their Software Business Unit to private equity firm Thoma Cressey Bravo (TCB) for $200 million. This resulted in a stand-alone company called Acresso Software Inc.

I don't know how they made up the company name, maybe it's taken from the owning company: THOMA CRESSEY BRAVO

The new company is located in Schaumburg near Chicago, the former headquarters of InstallShield Software Corp. According to information given in a conference call in February, the new company not only took over the software and know how from Macrovision, but also all the employees from Macrovision's software unit as well as some people from shared services such as marketing.

I don't know yet when and how the products will be re-branded.

• Press release
• Acresso.com web site