Microsoft will retire Visual Studio Installer

Since the release of Visual Studio 2010 users can get a limited edition of InstallShield free of charge. I just came across an announcement from Microsoft which has been posted two months ago. Candy Chiang, Program Manager Visual Studio Deployment, announces that in future versions the Setup & Deployment project type - also known as Visual Studio Installer - will be retired in favor of InstallShield Limited Edition. The announcement was posted in Microsoft's MSDN forum for ClickOnce and Setup & Deployment Projects:

Retirement of Visual Studio Installer Projects from future versions of Visual Studio
Candy Chiang MSFT Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:07 PM

In Visual Studio 2010, we have partnered with Flexera, makers of InstallShield, to create InstallShield Limited Edition 2010 just for Visual Studio 2010 customers. The InstallShield Limited Edition 2010 offers comparable functionality to the Visual Studio Installer projects. In addition, you can build your deployment projects using Team Foundation Server and MSBuild. For more information, see http://blogs.msdn.com/b/deployment_technologies/archive/2010/04/20/installshield-limited-edition-is-available-for-download-in-visual-studio-2010.aspx.

With InstallShield available, the Visual Studio Installer project types will not be available in future versions of Visual Studio. To preserve existing customer investments in Visual Studio Installer projects, Microsoft will continue to support the Visual Studio Installer projects feature that shipped with Visual Studio 2010 and below as per our product life-cycle strategy. For more information, see Expanded Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy for Business & Development Products.

I guess this announcement backs the following claim in the press release from Flexera Software:"InstallShield Limited Edition replaces Visual Studio Installer (VSI) as the preferred MSI installer development tool."

Note however that InstallShield LE (and the other InstallShield editions: Express, Professional and Premier) is not the only Windows Installer authoring tool that can be integrated in the Visual Studio IDE. For instance there's also WiX (the Windows Install XML Toolset) which at some point Microsoft planned to include with Visual Studio, but then changed their mind.

InstallShield can be purchased from the InstallSite Shop at http://www.installsite.biz/installshield.htm

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Published Thu, Sep 23 2010 14:38 by stefan
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Comments

# 日本はどうするの？

日本はどうするの？

Thursday, September 23, 2010 11:50 PM by とっちゃん's Blog

# Links of the week 38

This time all the links are related to Microsoft's announcement that Visual Studio Installer will

Monday, September 27, 2010 2:31 AM by InstallSite Blog

# re: Microsoft will retire Visual Studio Installer

That's too bad.  We've used InstallShield for some time and hate it.  Unless your doing an "XCopy with screens", InstallShield is a bug-ridden, difficult to use, code-smelly piece of dog poo that should be rewritten from the ground up.  The scripting language isn't documented well.  Product license and maintenance are very expensive; more expensive than VS Pro Edition, in fact. Paid support is poor.  Unless you get the one tech that can make it work, you'll go round and round in circles.

MS still doesn't have a decent product when it comes to installation.  MSI is hard, Wix is hard.  So MS punted the ball and outsourced to the "leader" in setup technology.  Too bad you have to have a completely different skillset to make setups of any appreciable complexity.  

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 10:26 AM by KGW

# re: Microsoft will retire Visual Studio Installer

Ditto on the previous post.  This is a mistake in which the only good to come is hopefully the cost of the InstallShield product suite will come down over time, or eventually be included in the VS Ultimate subscription.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 10:57 AM by DE

# What about WIX?

what about WIX. Wouldnt it be better to push that?

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 11:50 AM by Dan

# re: Microsoft will retire Visual Studio Installer

Installshield is horrid.  Its so needlessly complex and buggy with horrific support that I am consistently amazed at how much they charge.  Microsofts MSI installations were even more complex, but not as buggy.....so what did installshield do?

Thats right they layered their software on top of it....just to make things more complicated....and more buggy.  

The documentation sucks.  The samples suck.  The support calls are often sales calls where they try and convince you to use their internal IS experts to write the install for you.

And dont get me started on how rude they can be when they believe your organization should not be cheap and just buy a site license.  

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 12:38 PM by john doe

# re: Microsoft will retire Visual Studio Installer

Wow, what's the logic: if we can't get it right we quit?  So, when will they disable numbering in Word, any security in IE and all of Vista?

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 1:16 PM by NotSurprised

# re: Microsoft will retire Visual Studio Installer

Wow, apparently this is a "hot" topic :)

I think there's some consolidation going on at Microsoft. They continue to invest in key products (like Internet Explorer), but they don't create or stop projects if there's an ecosystem with (better) alternatives. Back in the days when Microsoft created Windows Installer, there were only very few authoring tools. Today there's a wide range available, commercial, freeware, open source - see my list at www.installsite.org/.../msidev.htm . This aligns with other decisions at Microsoft, like the recent announcement that they will be closing their Live Spaces blogging platform and partner with Wordpress instead.

The available selection of MSI authoring tools also means you're not forced to use InstallShield. As I mentioned in my article, WiX can also integrate with Visual Studio. Microsoft does support WiX (with man power), but they gave up their plan to ship it with Visual Studio. But you can download it free of charge.

There are Developers who love WiX, and there are others who find it complicated and prefer a point-and-click IDE like InstallShield. Both tools have their strengths and their weaknesses. But I believe that both (and probably all the other tools out there) create better setups than Visual Studio Installer did.

It looks like some commenters who criticize InstallShield have been using the "InstallScript MSI" project type, which is the InstallScript language on top of Windows Installer (MSI). And they are right: you shouldn't use that project type. I recommend using the "Basic MSI" project type instead.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 2:17 PM by stefan

# re: Microsoft will retire Visual Studio Installer

I've worked with Installshield since the original version and its never been a very good solution. At least back then you could work around the problems since it was fairly small and the scripting actually worked. Now it's a big 'ol mess (really BIG) and the support is insulting. Its an embarrassment. And they clearly don't care. Its like they think that their customers have no alternatives. And now they may be right...

Way to go, Microsoft. Something gets hard, and there isn't much money in it, so punt it off to someone else.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 4:14 PM by Bob

# re: Microsoft will retire Visual Studio Installer

This is obscene. Just as is the price of Installshield and apparently their support.  I’ve been using Advanced Installer for about five years now. The product is easy to use, intuitive and reasonably priced for the pro versions (like 1/5th the price of Installshield). The support is terrific too.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 6:24 PM by Bob

# re: Microsoft will retire Visual Studio Installer

Please, let's not get carried away.

Microsoft discontinues VSI. That's not obscene. It's a good thing in my opinion. And if you are a happy Advanced Installer user you're not even affected by this.

And actually many people (and governemts) prefer that Microsoft isn't making every software in the world, as that would be a monopoly. It's not unusual that one of the competing products disappears from the market. Happens all the time. Remember Wise shutting down their Installation Studio?

At the same time, a new choice enters the market: a free (however stripped down) edition of an otherwise expensive product.

So you can choose: Buy InstallShield at full price. Or get InstallShield free with limited functionality. Or download WiX. Or buy Advanced Installer. Or ...

Will anyone really miss VSI?

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 11:46 PM by stefan

# re: Microsoft will retire Visual Studio Installer

We've been using many versions of InstallShield for "Basic MSI" projects up to version 11.5. At last we decided that we cannot afford to use such a crap anymore. InstallShield was slow, full of bugs and lacked the functionality we need. Some annoying bugs roamed from version to version for years.

Now we are using WiX and we just happy.

Thursday, September 30, 2010 1:36 AM by Artyom

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