InstallSite Blog

InstallShield and InstallAnywhere prices will go up

In an e-mail sent today, Acresso announced that effective November 1, 2008, prices will increase on InstallShield® and InstallAnywhere®. There were no details in the e-mail, but according to my information the prices for full versions and upgrades of InstallShield and InstallAnywhere will go up substantially.

So if you plan to buy InstallShield or InstallAnywhere or upgrade to the latest version, you should do so before November 1, 2008. Note that until September 30, 2008 there are extra discounts available for some upgrades and end-of-life special offers.

You can buy InstallShield and InstallAnywhere in the InstallSite Shop

Security Vulnerability in FLEXnet Connect / InstallShield Update Service

When checking for updates, the FLEXnet Connect client (and it's previous versions named InstallShield Update Service) can download and execute scripts from the update server. The problem is that these scripts are downloaded via HTTP, so the identity of the server isn't verified and the scripts are not encrypted. Therefore an attacker could cause the client to execute malicious scripts, for instance by redirecting the connection using a proxy or a DNS attack. There's no fix available but the following article from the US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) lists some possible workarounds:

• Vulnerability Note VU#837092: InstallShield / Macrovision / Acresso FLEXnet Connect insecurely retrieves and executes scripts

InstallShield 2009 Service Pack 2 available

Acresso released Service Pack 2 for InstallShield 2009 Premier and Professional. SP2 contains support for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008. In addition, several issues were resolved in this service pack. The SP2 patch includes all of the SP1 changes.

The service pack is currently available for the English editions of InstallShield only. German and Japanese versions will be posted at a later time. An updated version of the Standalone Build will also be released at a later time.

• Release Notes
• Download

Tarma Installer 5.3 released

Tarma Software Research announces the release of Tarma Installer 5.3. 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, support for Windows side-by-side assemblies and Windows mobile installers, fully editable installer dialogs and dialog sequences, fully editable installer action sequences, full support for Windows mobile installers and comprehensive localization support. The 5.3 release adds support for disk spanning several new Installer packaging options, including selective downloads.

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.

Tarma Installer uses a proprietary runtime engine. Windows Installer (MSI) based setups can be created with Tarma ExpertInstall.

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

(Text based on a press release from Tarma Software Research Pty)

Additional upgrade discounts from Acresso, including end-of-life products

Today Acresso extended the upgrade discount offer (10% off the upgrade price) that is available through the end of September (for AdminStudio: end of October) to the following product versions:

• InstallShield Express: versions 11, 11.5, 12, 2008
• InstallShield Professional and Premier: versions 11, 11.5
• InstallAnywhere Standard and Enterprise: version 7.0
• AdminStudio Standard, Professional and Enterprise: versions 7.x, 8.x

In addition, owners of old InstallShield, InstallAnywhere and AdminStudio versions that are past end-of-life and no longer qualify for upgrade pricing can get 30% off the price of the full product during the same time period.

Please contact your preferred reseller for the appropriate discount codes.

You can buy InstallShield, InstallAnywhere and AdminStudio in the InstallSite Shop

Acresso released AdminStudio 9 and announced end of life for AdminStudio 7.x

On August 29, 2008 Acresso released version 9.0 of AdminStudio Enterprise, Professional and Standard editions.

• AdminStudio 9 Release Notes (PDF)
• Webinar: What's New in AdminStudio 9.0 and Workflow Manager 5.0
  Registration required. WARNING: Anyone who knows your e-mail address can retrieve the information you entered during registration, so be careful what you enter as address, phone number, company revenue, etc.

At the same time, Acresso announced the end of life of AdminStudio 7.0 and 7.5. This includes Enterprise, Professional and Standard Editions. To stay current with the latest Acresso release, AdminStudio 7.x users can purchase the latest version of AdminStudio at the upgrade price through December 31, 2008. After December 31, 2008, they will need to purchase a new license of the latest version of AdminStudio at the regular full license price in order to stay current.

• AdminStudio End-of-Life Notice
  

You can buy AdminStudio in the InstallSite Shop