InstallSite Blog

What's New in Windows Installer on Windows 8

Here's a quick summary what's new in the MSI engine that comes with Windows 8.

What's new in MSI 5 on Windows 8

According to the documentation:

• nothing

My own findings so far:

• Windows Installer runtime version - as indicated by the file version of msi.dll - is 5.0.9200.16384
• VersionNT = 602 (so similar to Windows 7 Microsoft didn't increment the major version for application compatibility reasons)
• WindowsBuild = 9200

According to Darwin Sanoy, Windows Installer also processes Appx Packages when installing Windows Store Apps.

Advanced Installer 9.5 includes Windows 8 Style Dialog Theme

On September 10th, 2012 Caphyon Ltd. announced the release of Advanced Installer 9.5 in Freeware, Professional, For Java, Enterprise and Architect editions. The 9.5 release includes many enhancements (see the release notes), but what really caught my eye is a new group of dialog themes that use the "Windows Store App" style:

The theme is also available in red and white/green. By the way: these screenshots were taken on Windows 7, so Windows 8 is not a requirement for this dialog style.

These themes also reduce the number of dialogs a user has to click through, by omitting the Welcome dialog and combining the destination folder selection and the checkbox to agree to the license agreement on the same dialog with a big "Install" button. However, if you actually want to read the license agreement before you agree (but no-one does that, right?), you have to click a link. -You may want to check with your legal department if that's sufficient.- The link will open an additional dialog with the license agreement and an "Accept & Install" button, so you don't have to return to the previous dialog to start the installation process.

P.S. If you want to try the new themes, don't look for "Metro", they're filed under "Surface".

Advanced Installer is available via the InstallSite Shop at http://www.installsite.biz/advancedinstaller.htm

Service Pack 1 for InstallShield 2012 Spring available

Flexera Software released a service pack for InstallShield 2012 Spring to bring it up to date for the release versions of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Visual Studio 2012 and .NET Framework 4.5. It also includes some support for AppX Packages, the new package format that is used for Windows Store Apps. While InstallShield can't create .appx packages (because Visual Studio does that), the Premier Edition can now side-load AppX packages from Suite/Advanced UI projects without using the Windows Store, and you can build conditions that check for the existence of an AppX package.

The service pack also includes prerequisites for the .NET Framework 4.5 (full and web) and for the Visual C++ 2012 Redistributables (x86 and x64).

An updated version of the Stand-Alone Build engine is also available from the Download and Licensing Center.

Note that projects that you open in the SP1 version will be converted and can no longer be opened in InstallShield 2012 Spring without service pack, so make sure you update all your InstallShield machines.

The service pack and release notes are available from Flexera Software knowledge base article Q208466.

P.S.: If you are still using InstallShield 2010 you can only update to the latest version until end of September.

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