InstallSite Blog : Industry News

AdminStudio 9.5 now available

stefan — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:45:12 GMT

Flexera Software has released the new version of AdminStudio, as announced at Tech-Ed Europe. AdminStudio 9.5 includes improved support for the RTM version of Windows 7 and MSI 5, several updates to the Repackager (but no 64 bit support yet), and the latest version of InstallShield 2010 Service Pack 1 as editor. The AdminStudio editions with Virtualization Pack also has improved support for the new versions of Microsoft App-V and VMware ThinApp.

AdminStudio 9.5 Release Notes (PDF)

AdminStudio is available from the InstallSite Shop.

AdminStudio 9.5 will improve support for Windows 7 and App-V, but won't include a 64 bit Repackager

stefan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:23:09 GMT

Today at the Microsoft TechEd Europe conference in Berlin, Flexera Software announced a new version of their packaging and virtualization tool. AdminStudio 9.5 is scheduled to be released on November 23, 2009.

The AdminStudio Repackager has been improved to support Windows 7 requirements, including enhanced exclusion lists. AdminStudio 9.5 also includes InstallShield 2010 to edit MSI files.

AdminStudio 9.5 will also support the latest releases of the leading application virtualization products: Microsoft App-V 4.6 and VMware ThinApp 4.0.3.

Unfortunately, AdminStudio 9.5 will not include support for repackaging 64 bit applications, but Flexera Software told me that this is high on their priority list. If you’re interested in beta-testing this functionality, please contact me (skrueger -at- installsite -dot- org) and I will forward you e-mail to Flexera Software.

Press release

You can buy AdminStudio in the InstallSite Shop.

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 includes link to InstallShield Limited Edition

stefan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:02:26 GMT

Some beta testers of Visual Studio 2010 pointed out that in the New Project dialog there is a new template called "InstallShield 2010". It's listed next to "Visual Studio Installer" under Other Project Types > Setup and Deployment. It's not a real template but only a button labeled "Enable InstallShield Limited Edition" as you can see in the screenshot from the Professional edition of Visual studio 2010 Beta 2:

Clicking this button takes you to another page with some explanation what InstallShield Limited Edition for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is, and a button "Go to InstallShield". However the link behind this button isn't (yet?) working, it redirects to the Microsoft homepage.

So it looks like Microsoft and Flexera Software are extending their cooperation to make a limited edition of InstallShield available to Visual Studio users. Users of Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) can already get a limited edition of Flexera Software's AdminStudio at no additional cost.

There is currently no information about the capabilities and limitations of this edition of InstallShield.

While it's good to see that Microsoft is going to offer Visual Studio users an alternative to Visual Studio Installer projects (which are still available) to create Windows Installer (MSI) setups, I'm still sad that they decided not to include the Windows Installer XML toolkit (WiX) with Visual Studio 2010, as they had planned previously. And since Visual Studio 2010 is still in beta, they could even decide not to include InstallShield either.

Speaking of WiX - the WiX toolset now supports Visual Studio 2010 Beta2:

Related information:

Application Virtualization for Developers - Webinar by Flexera Software

stefan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:13:59 GMT

I'm looking forward to this webinar because it's going to discuss a question that I'm also asking myself these days: "Is application virtualization the future of software installations?". Of course, the final answer will be "InstallShield" because it supports Microsoft App-V and it's the product that Flexera Software wants to sell. But I hope they'll cover some interesting points along the way. Some bullet points about the content of the webinar:

Why software developers are delivering applications in virtual formats
Best practices for developing a virtual version of an application
How to simultaneously build a MSI setup and Microsoft App-V™ virtual package with InstallShield

The webinar will be held twice on Thursday, November 5, 2009, at two different times to accommodate time zones.

First webinar: 15:00 UTC = 9am CT / 10am ET / 3pm London / 16:00 Germany / other time zones
Second webinar: 19:00 UTC = 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm London / 20:00 Germany / other time zones

Caveat: Registration required. Be careful with the information you enter in the registration form, because anyone who knows your e-mail address will be able to retrieve it. This includes your full name, phone number and the like.

Registration page

Acresso changes name to Flexera

stefan — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:32:00 GMT

Mark Bishof, President and CEO of Acresso Software, today informed customers that the company will change its name to Flexera Software effective October 12, 2009. They plan to issue a formal press announcement about this on October 13. But in his e-mail he already hinted about the reason:

"Under the new corporate brand, Flexera Software, we can fully market, service, and support our products in all geographies where we do business today and where we plan to over the coming years."

So maybe the word "Acresso" has some negative connotations in some language or country, or maybe there were legal or trademark issues.

However, according to the e-mail, "this corporate branding change should be transparent" to customers, and except the name nothing will change.

This is the second name change for the maker of the InstallShield, InstallAnywhere, AdminStudio and FLEXnet product families within 19 months. Here's a brief history:

In July 2004 Macrovision Corp., makers of FLEXnet and multimedia copy protection products, acquired InstallShield Software Corp., makers of InstallShield and AdminStudio.
In June 2005 Macrovision also acquired InstallShield's former competitor, Zero G Software, Inc., makers of InstallAnywhere.
In April 2008, Macrovision's software business unit was sold to private equity firm Thoma Bravo under the name Acresso Software.
On October 13, 2009 Acresso Software will be renamed to Flexera Software.

By the way: In July 2009 the remaining Macrovision Corp. was renamed to rovi Corporation.

Service Pack 1 for InstallShield 2010 brings support for the final released versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

stefan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:17:02 GMT

When InstallShield 2010 was released, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were still in the Release Candidate (RC) state. Acresso now published Service Pack 1 to support the release versions (RTM) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, and the included MSI 5 engine. SP1 also includes some enhancements for Windows Mobile installations and for Microsoft's App-V application virtualization.

Caveat: SP1 adds additional tables to the project file. When you open a project file in InstallShield 2010 SP1 it will be converted to the new format. Thereafter it can no longer be opened in InstallShield 2010 without SP1. So if you are working in a team, make sure that all users install SP1 simultaneously.

The stand-alone build engine has also been updated and can be downloaded as a full install package (not a patch).

Enhancements in SP1 related to Windows Installer 5 and Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 include:

Improved manifest for setup.exe to avoid triggering the program compatibility assistant on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
New options for Windows Services
Setting shell properties for shortcuts
Windows 7 Logo validation

Enhanced support for Microsoft App-V (requires Virtualization Pack):

Create App-V package upgrades
Compress App-V packages

Enhancements related to Windows Mobile 6.5:

Specify a 90x90 .png shortcut Icon for the Start Screen on Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional, which is a requirement for the Windows Marketplace for Mobile

SP1 also includes a number of bug fixes.

For detailed information see the release notes:

To download SP1 select Check for Updates from the Tools menu in InstallShield. See also knowledge base article Q206429

New Advanced Installer 7.2 brings desktop ActiveSync installers for Windows Mobile applications

stefan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:56:01 GMT

On September 8th, 2009 Caphyon Ltd. announced the latest edition of its Windows Installer authoring tool. This is the fifth feature update in this year. Since each Advanced Installer purchase includes 6 months of maintenance (optionally 30 months) you get an average of three free updates.

New and improved features in Advanced Installer 7.2 include:

Install Windows Mobile applications from the desktop through ActiveSync
Transforms Wizard to create MST transforms capturing user input during an install or the differences between two Windows Installer MSI databases
Fast installs through Windows Installer 5.0
Retrieve WiX imported files from Visual Studio project
Ability to digitally sign using information from the certificates store
Ability to customize the installation folder for each feature
Mixed 32-bit/64-bit package predefined project template
Visual C++ application predefined project template
.NET Framework application predefined project template
Copy/Paste support for dialog editor, launch conditions, Prerequisites, upgrades and searches
Command line options for: Windows Mobile projects, patch images, adding and removing merge modules in a MSI project, setting merge module signature information, ProductCode
Windows Powershell 1.0 predefined prerequisite
Adobe Flash Player 10 predefined prerequisite
XNA Framework 3.1 predefined prerequisite and launch condition
SQL Server Express and SQL Server Compact launch conditions

Advanced Installer is licensed on a per developer basis, allowing named users to install the software on up to five machines. It is available in four editions, starting with the Freeware community edition and offering a 30-day trial period for the other editions.

For more information about Advanced Installer please see:
www.installsite.biz/advancedinstaller.htm

Rob Mensching starts Windows Installer Consulting business, offering free project reviews

stefan — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:59:45 GMT

Rob Mensching is the lead of the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset, an open source tool to create Windows Installer (MSI) setups. I his day job he's employed at Microsoft, and as another side project he wrote his own blog software. Apparently he still has some additional spare time ;-) so he started RobMensching.com LLC to offer software installation consulting services for the Windows Installer and WiX toolset.

As part of his consulting business, Rob offers to review .msi packages and .wxs projects free of charge. Wow! I highly recommend you make use of Rob's Windows Installer knowledge and experience.

RobMensching.com LLC

Windows 7 with IE and Ballot Screen in Europe

stefan — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:46:24 GMT

Microsoft will ship the full Windows 7 with Internet Explorer in Europe, instead of the previously proposed “Windows 7 E” version without any browser.

In June, Microsoft had announced that they would remove Internet Explorer from Windows 7 in order to “comply with European competition law” as they said. As a side effect, users in the EU would not have been able to do an in-place upgrade from Vista to Windows 7. This decision caused protest from columnists, consumers and also from the European Union.

As a result, Microsoft dropped their plans for the “E” version and will instead ship the full Windows 7 in Europe. However users (only in Europe) will be presented with a “ballot screen” where they can select an alternative browser instead of Internet Explorer. You can read more about this (including a screenshot of the ballot screen) in Microsoft’s legal and policy blog.

It’s good to see they found a consumer friendly solution, although I find it strange that Microsoft is required to advertise their competitors’ products.

I wonder if other companies will now follow Microsoft and also offer ballot screens. For instance Adobe, who always offer Google Toolbar to me, whenever I download Adobe Reader or Flash player, should give me a choice of other browser toolbars. Or – maybe better not. I’d prefer Adobe, Apple, Sun and everyone would get rid of these toolbars they bundle with their software.

New Advanced Installer 7.1 brings Windows 7 and WI 5 compatibility and support

stefan — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:02:39 GMT

On July 8th, 2009 Caphyon Ltd. announced the latest edition of its Windows Installer authoring tool. The new Advanced Installer enables developers and system administrators to easily build and repackage complex applications into reliable, ready to deploy MSI and EXE installers, patches and on-line updates.

The 7.1 release completes our Windows 7 and Windows Installer 5.0 compatibility and support. From new features readily available to your installers to better usability and OS integration, Advanced Installer makes checking for and using the new Microsoft platform a snap.

Multiple user interface improvements are available in this version, both in installers using the Enhanced UI feature and in Advanced Installer itself where a new set of cleaner, modernized and better suited for the Vista/Windows 7 operation systems icons debuts.

New predefined ready-to-use prerequisites, launch conditions, searches and ten new custom ways of searching on the user's computer ensure that your application's install never fails due to problems in third-party frameworks, components or products.

Other improvements in this version:

Single Package Authoring for WI 5.0
Enhanced Service Configuration for WI 5.0
Ability to generate Unicode MSI Databases
File associations in Windows Mobile projects
New configuration content report for Windows Mobile projects
Display progress information on Windows 7 Taskbar for: Auto Updater, Repackager, package build, Enhanced UI installation and EXE bootstrapper installation
Added Checklist control in Enhanced UI
Added Hyperlink control in Enhanced UI and Windows Installer 5.0 UI
Multiple selection ListBox and ListView controls in Enhanced UI
ASP.NET registration for an IIS web application
Logging support for chained packages
Extended search support with 10 additional methods
Predefined searches for RegAsm, Regsvr32, Aspnet_regiis and Microsoft Office installation path
Microsoft Silverlight predefined prerequisite
DirectX 11 predefined launch condition
Windows 7 predefined launch condition
Refreshed Advanced Installer icon set

Advanced Installer is available in four editions, starting with the Freeware community edition and offering a 30-day trial period for the other editions.

For more information and ordering Advanced Installer please see:
www.installsite.biz/advancedinstaller.htm

(Text based on a press release from Caphyon Ltd.)

InstallShield 2010 Released

stefan — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:55:14 GMT

(Updated to fix broken hyperlinks)

On October 18, 2009 Acresso released the latest version of their setup authoring tool InstallShield, which reportedly is used by over 71,000 ISVs and enterprises to create installers for Windows and mobile devices.

What's new in InstallShield 2010

Supports Microsoft App-V with new InstallShield Virtualization Pack - in addition to Windows Installer (MSI) and proprietary InstallScripts, developers can now create virtual application packages for Microsoft App-V (formerly Softgrid)
New Microsoft technologies supported natively in InstallShield – InstallShield 2010 supports Windows 7 and MSI 5 features so developers can use them now on Windows XP and Vista platforms. It also has support for Windows Server 2008 R2.
Improved support for Web applications – Expanded IIS features now include all IIS 7 settings.
IDE usability improvements – New flattened architecture and dynamic and global searching significantly increase developer productivity. Developers can spend 10 minutes to learn the new IDE and then benefit from significant time saved on daily tasks.
More options for runtime user-experience customization – ISVs have more customization options to create user experience and branding with new support for billboards, Flash, HTML, and hyperlinks. New branding options can help ISVs up/cross-sell their software by adding more user interaction through the installation process.
Better support for multi-language installation – InstallShield now supports Unicode. Also developers will save significant time by having a single view of all languages with dynamic searching and replacing global settings at once.
plus over 400 new and enhanced features from customer requests

Detailed information can be found in the datasheet and in the release notes:

If you’re in Europe you can buy InstallShield 2010 from the InstallSite Shop.

Changes in Activation Process and EULA

Changes in the End User License Agreement (EULA) and in the activation process include:

Licenses can now be “de-activated” manually, even offline.
Activation needs to be repeated on a yearly basis.
Using InstallShield in a virtual machine is now allowed.

I have created a side-by-side comparison of the old and the new EULA and a summary of the changes in the activation process. For full details please read Acresso’s official documents:

InstallShield 2010 EULA (PDF)
InstallShield Activation User Guide (PDF)

End of Life announced for InstallShield 12 and InstallAnywhere 8

Together with the release of InstallShield 2010 Acresso also announced the end of life for InstallShield 12 and InstallAnywhere 8 (all language editions). This means that you can upgrade from these versions only until October 30, 2009. After that date you would have to pay the full license price.

October 31, 2009 is the deadline for the following product versions:

InstallShield 12 (all languages)
InstallShield 2008 German
InstallShield 2009 German
InstallAnywhere 8 (all languages)
InstallAnywhere 2008 (German and French)
InstallAnywhere 2009 (German and French)

The end of life for the localized German versions of InstallShield and the German and French versions of InstallAnywhere had already been announced two weeks ago.
The English versions of InstallShield 2008 and higher and InstallAnywhere 2008 and higher are not affected by this announcement.

More information about these end of life announcements can be found in the InstallSite Shop and the Acresso Website.

End of Life for InstallShield German announced

stefan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:33:19 GMT

Today Acresso announced the end of life for the German editions of InstallShield and for the German and French editions of InstallAnywhere.

There will be no German edition of InstallShield 2010, and upgrade pricing from the German to the English edition will end on October 31, 2009.

Here are the official announcements:

Additional information in German language:

Acresso Software, der Hersteller von InstallShield, hat bekannt gegeben, dass die deutsche Edition der InstallShield-Produktfamilie nicht fortgeführt wird. Somit sind InstallShield 2009 Premier, Professional und Express die letzten InstallShield-Produkte in deutscher Sprache. Ab InstallShield 2010 wird es die Software nur noch auf Englisch (und Japanisch) geben.

Bis 31.10.2009 gibt es einen Sonder-Rabatt beim Umstieg von der deutschen auf die englische Version. Danach ist kein Upgrade von der deutschen Version mehr möglich, d.h. ab 1.11.2009 muss der Preis der Vollversion bezahlt werden..

Hier habe ich einige Informationen für Besitzer und Interessenten von InstallShield German mit oder ohne Wartungsvertrag zusammengestellt:
http://www.installsite.biz/de/ix_ger_eol.htm

Ebenfalls betroffen ist InstallAnywhere, wo die deutsche und die französische Version eingestellt wird. Auch hier endet die Upgrade-Berechtigung am 31.10.2009.

New Advanced Installer 7.0 brings Windows Mobile/CE support

stefan — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:45:05 GMT

On May 25th, 2009 Caphyon Ltd. announced the latest edition of its Windows Installer authoring tool. The new Advanced Installer enables developers and system administrators to easily build and repackage complex applications into reliable, ready to deploy MSI and EXE installers, patches and on-line updates.

The 7.0 release breaks new ground with the addition of full support for the Windows Mobile platform. Finally creating fully featured installers for your smartphone applications becomes just as easy as creating installers for your desktop products.

Another major addition in this release is the enhanced installation user interface. This brand new external UI implementation is laying the foundation for massive improvements on how your installers look and feel. Better Vista/Windows 7 integration, transparencies, exciting new controls and more powerful customization are ready to use in your installers.

Do you have installers already written with NSIS that you need to switch to Windows Installer? Advanced Installer 7.0 can import NSIS projects in addition to Visual Studio, WiX, Eclipse and Inno Setup. Quickly and painlessly convert them to MSI - with just a few mouse clicks.

And of course, as always, tons of smaller features come to help every-day's life of the installer developer. Application leftovers after uninstall are now a thing of the past with the built-in support for uninstall cleanup. Predefined Custom actions for port testing and application shutdowns. Prerequisites and launch conditions for XNA Framework, Windows Installer 5.0, Internet Explorer 8 and many more.

Other improvements in this version:

Windows Mobile/CE support
Import NSIS projects
Enhanced installation user interface
Cleanup application-generated resources and settings at uninstall
Persist user-modified application data through upgrades and repairs
Predefined custom action for testing if a port is free (not bound to an application)
Predefined custom action for closing applications
Custom name in the "Add or Remove Programs" applet
XNA Framework predefined prerequisite and launch condition
Windows Installer 5.0 predefined launch condition
Internet Explorer 8 predefined launch condition
SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 SP1 predefined prerequisite

Advanced Installer is available in four editions, starting with the Freeware community edition and offering a 30-day trial period for the other editions.

For more information and ordering Advanced Installer please see:
www.installsite.biz/advancedinstaller.htm

(Text based on a press release from Caphyon Ltd.)

AdminStudio adds support for direct conversion to Microsoft App-V

stefan — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:19:57 GMT

On April 28, 2009 Acresso Software announced the release of App-V support for AdminStudio.

AdminStudio can now directly convert existing physical application packages to the virtual format for use with Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, the most broadly distributed application virtualization technology. With the latest release of AdminStudio, organizations can accelerate the creation, testing and management of virtual applications being deployed through App-V, making AdminStudio a beneficial component to enable customers to rapidly prepare virtual applications and expedite App-V implementations.

AdminStudio accelerates virtual deployments by converting applications into the App-V format natively, without the use of the App-V Sequencer. AdminStudio also speeds virtual application packaging and deployment above and beyond the use of the native sequencing process, by offering vital time and effort saving tools, including:

an automated process to migrate a single application, a few .EXEs, or an entire library of MSI-based applications to the App-V virtual format
editing and customization of virtual and traditional applications via the award-winning InstallShield® technology built into AdminStudio
a pre-virtualization scan which helps to determine which existing applications are the best candidates for virtualization before being deployed in a virtual environment
a combined application catalog to manage package-centric business practices, including updates for virtual applications deployed via App-V and traditional applications deployed through System Center Configuration Manager
a direct integration with Acresso Workflow Manager, the blueprint tool for managing application readiness, application virtualization, OS migrations, and other desktop management processes.

In beta use, AdminStudio users have seen physical to virtual application conversion times reduced from weeks to just a few hours. AdminStudio automated tools for converting applications, including batch conversion functionality, have migrated application libraries of over 200 applications from the MSI format to the App-V format in less than two hours.

With the addition of App-V support, AdminStudio now supports three popular application virtualization formats:

VMware ThinApp (formerly known as Thinstall)
Citrix XenApp
Microsoft App-V (formerly known as SoftGrid)

And of course, AdminStudio continues to support Windows Installer (MSI) packaging. Application virtualization support is an add-on package that’s available for the Standard, Professional and Enterprise editions of AdminStudio.

AdminStudio is available in the InstallSite Shop.

(Text based on a press release from Acresso Software)

No joke – WiX will NOT Ship with Visual Studio

stefan — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:07:00 GMT

Several months ago, Microsoft had announced that the next version of Visual Studio (Visual Studio 2010, code name Rosario) will ship with a subset of the Windows Installer XML Toolkit (WiX). But on April 1st, 2009, Rob Mensching, the WiX project lead, had bad news to announce on his blog: “Visual Studio will not ship the WiX toolset, contributes only”.

Given the date, and since Microsoft officially had announced WiX in Visual Studio and CTP pre-releases of Rosario included WiX, I assumed that this was an April Fool’s joke. Unfortunately, it is not.

I don’t know what the exact reasons were for this unexpected decision, so I can’t really judge. But I think that it’s a lose-lose situation. Visual Studio won’t ship with an advanced Windows Installer authoring tool. And the open source WiX project won’t be “blessed” as a product that’s backed by Microsoft support.

The good news is that WiX will continue to work with and integrate in Visual Studio, and that the work that the Visual Studio team has contributed to the WiX project isn’t lost but will help to finalize WiX 3.0.

Let’s hope that the disappointment that this decision probably has caused in the team will not stop their enthusiasm.

InstallBuilder 6.0 released with Extended GUI and Automatic Update Delivery

stefan — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:14:00 GMT

On March 11, 2009 BitRock Inc announced the release of InstallBuilder 6.0. The latest release of the cross-platform application packaging tool includes an extended GUI, so you can now access all of InstallBuilder’s functionality without having to edit the XML project files by hand. It also includes automatic update capabilities, so companies can send software updates directly to their users.

For more information and ordering visit the InstallSite shop at
http://www.installsite.biz/en/bitrock.htm

New Advanced Installer 6.9 brings multi-instance installs and IIS Application Pools support

stefan — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:29:00 GMT

On March 18th, 2009 Caphyon Ltd. announced the latest edition of its Windows Installer authoring tool. The new Advanced Installer enables developers and system administrators to easily build and repackage complex applications into reliable, ready to deploy MSI and EXE installers, patches and on-line updates.

The 6.9 release helps you build installers able to install multiple instances of a product on the same computer, avoiding conflicts through separate resource (file and registry) spaces.

The addition of an Application Pools feature completes Advanced Installer's comprehensive Web Application support covering IIS, SQL Server, SQL scripts and ASP.NET.

Also new in this version is the ability to schedule image slide shows in the background during the install of your application. Together with full billboard editor, this opens up additional possibilities of branding, advertising and presenting your products during install.

Other improvements in this version:

Ability to install multiple instances of the same product
IIS Application Pools support
Extensible trial period
Programmable image slide shows for installation background
Back / Next navigation in Advanced Installer's graphical interface
Hide Java Launcher settings from end-user

Advanced Installer is available in four editions, starting with the Freeware community edition and offering a 30-day trial period for the other editions.

For more information and ordering Advanced Installer please see:
www.installsite.biz/advancedinstaller.htm

(Text based on a press release from Caphyon Ltd.)

30% Discount off InstallShield and InstallAnywhere Upgrades through April

stefan — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:22:19 GMT

For a limited time you can save 30% when upgrading to the latest versions of InstallShield or InstallAnywhere.

This offer is valid for upgrades from InstallShield 12 or InstallShield 2008 to InstallShield 2009 and from InstallAnywhere 8, InstallAnywhere 2008 or InstallAnywhere 2008 Value Pack 1 to InstallAnywhere 2009.

In addition to pure upgrades the offer is also valid for upgrades bundled with a maintenance plan. (It is not valid for full products, maintenance renewals or end-of-live products.)

This special offer runs until April 30, 2009.

You can buy InstallShield and InstallAnywhere from the InstallSite Shop

FLEXnet Connect 6.1 Security Update

stefan — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:43:44 GMT

Acresso has published a fix for a security issue in FLEXnet Connect (previously called InstallShield Update Service) that was reported in September 2008.

The problem was that FLEXnet connect used an unauthenticated HTTP connection to download and execute scripts from the update server. Therefore an attacker could cause the client to execute malicious scripts, for instance by redirecting the connection using a proxy or a DNS attack.

The update is only available for FLEXnet Connect version 6.1. According to the US-CERT FLEXnet Connect version 11.1.100.17104 or higher is not affected by the problem.

Acresso’s knowledge base article about the security update has no technical details about how the problem was fixed.

The update is available for the FLEXnet Connect client agent which is already installed on end users’ computers and for the FLEXnet Connect SDK which developers adding FLEXnet Connect to their setup should install on their development machines.

To deploy the end user hotfix to your customers, create and publish an update to your product, as described in the knowledge base article.

To install the fixed SDK, you must first manually uninstall the previous version from your development machine (I wonder why Acresso isn’t using a Major Upgrade for this purpose).

New Advanced Installer 6.8 brings Inno Setup project importing

stefan — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:04:14 GMT

On February 5th, 2009 Caphyon Ltd. announced the latest edition of its Windows Installer authoring tool. The new Advanced Installer enables developers and system administrators to easily build and repackage complex applications into reliable, ready to deploy MSI and EXE installers, patches and on-line updates.

The 6.8 version makes switching to Windows Installer easier than ever before by importing Inno Setup projects. Move to MSI setups without losing the time and effort already invested into your installers.

New predefined Custom Actions allow you to list all databases users can connect to in the installation UI, detect processes or services and call any function in any standard DLL.

Customize multiple installers generated from a single project with different GUI themes according to each target market and audience.

Other improvements in this version:

Import Inno Setup projects
Call function from standard DLL predefined custom action
Ability to add new dialogs directly in the UI Sequence
List all databases the user can connect to
Detect process and stop process predefined custom actions
Detect service predefined custom action
Per-build GUI themes
Ability to condition standard actions
Detailed information when trying to remove a referenced file, folder or property
Wizard for "Browse IIS Websites & Virtual Directories" predefined custom action
Wizard for "Browse for SQL Servers" predefined custom action
Installed Office 2003 application predefined launch condition

Advanced Installer is available in four editions, starting with the Freeware community edition and offering a 30-day trial period for the other editions.

For more information about Advanced Installer please see:
www.installsite.biz/advancedinstaller.htm

(Text based on a press release from Caphyon Ltd.)