I am trying to determine which version of InstallShield I need. I need to be able to move files from one folder to another folder during the install. Then during the uninstall, I need to be able to remove those files.
I am not sure which version I would need? Premiere or Professional?
You can use custom actions to do the behavior you want in both Professional and Premiere. However, there may be some other feature that you absolutely need that Premiere may only contain. To be sure, you can look at the features here: http://www.flexerasoftware.com/producer/products/software-installation/installshield-software-installer/tab/editions
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I have an old InstallShield installer which i believe was made using InstallShield 2012. I don't have the install script code for the same. I only have exe of the installer with me.
I need to create a new installer containing some of the same features from old installer, so is there any way by which i can get the setup.rul file of the installer from its exe?
I did some googling but got no help.
Setup.exe Extraction: If you run an extraction of your setup.exe, do you get an *.ins file?
Programmatically extract contents of InstallShield setup.exe
Extract MSI from EXE
Decompiler: I believe there are some hacky solutions to decompile *.ins to *.rul. I do not have such a tool, nor have I ever tried one and I can't recall seeing any trace of them for a whole decade. Perhaps Installshield support can help?
Alternatives: Off the top of my head: Contact Installshield support, they might have better advice? Check with Installshield community? Check with Stefan Kruger - Installshield consultant? Check any source repositories you can find based on setup.exe timestamp? (search for *.rul, *.ism, or similar as relevant). Check backups? Check backups of setup developer PC? Check github.com even? (for samples of similar tasks). Check external media, email attachments, network shares, etc...
I've been using CMAKE recently on Linux and Windows and I really like it. Its a great way of spinning up a project and organizing your builds. There are just a few things that are bugging me and I'm hoping to get help here.
Visual Studio Settings
Everytime CMAKE generates a project it will be a fresh solution and will not maintain any of the settings you applied to the Visual Studio project. I know that many things such as CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS, etc can change the properties. But what if I want to change settings such as "Suppress Startup Banner", "Environment", Enabling Microsoft Symbol Server, Enabling Native Code Debugging. How do I force CMAKE to set the options I want for fields like these?
Combining Debug/Release/Etc into one solution
It seems that with CMAKE you have to do separate generations for Debug/Release/etc. But in typical manually created Visual Studio projects you can combine the profiles and just change a project setting to get your new settings. Is it possible to generate a single solution file from CMAKE?
Okay so I scoured the CMAKE boards as well. Here are the answers I found.
Visual Studio Settings
For this one CMAKE can't modify the *.user files at all. However what was proposed was to make a user file template and then use CMAKE to supply all the paths and such that you are concerned with. This worked very well for me.
Combining Debug/Release/Etc into one solution
To change various settings on a per configuration basis. It seems like it is best to use fields like CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_ and most importantly generator expressions. Generator expressions allow you to test for the build type and then generate whatever include, libraries, etc that you need.
Take a look at "Generator Expressions" here
I'm new to VS, coming from the Mac where I used the excellent CodeKit for LESS compiling. I've installed the Web Essentials add-on, so I have basic LESS support and compiling.
The major shortcoming with this plugin is when saving files that are imported into a main.less file, the main.less file does not compile unless I open it specifically and save it.
I'd prefer a solution like CodeKit, which would compile the parent file if any of the children are modified. Are there any other plugins, even commercial ones, which do this?
There's an option in Web Essentials to "compile all LESS files", which would almost do what I want, but it throws an error:
In WebEssentials there is an option (tools>Options>WebEssentials>Less) to Compile all files on Build, which you'll probably do before publishing anyway. You might want to add your votes to the UserVoice ticket for this issue.
BundleTransformer allows you to have ASP.NET do the transformations on the fly (at runtime), having it compile, minify and compress all in one go. You won't have to recompile your files inside Visual Studio itself. You can keep using WebEssentials for intellisense.
And then there is the Mindscape Web Workbench which provides similar functionality as Webessentials. Their Pro edition ($) can also compile files on save & build.
I personally prefer http://wearekiss.com/simpless You can use it even in Express edition since it's not integrated inside VS.
Just open the Simpless drag and drop the file and it will compile your file automatically when they has been modified from your VS (or any of editor).
Web Essential is also have suggest in someone answer.
Being forced to use the garbage version of LE in VS 2012, I cannot get things to build because it is telling me that my install folder path is too long. It literally looks like it is creating the same path, verbatim, inside of another folder. First this fails on the DVD so can I disable that? Second, this appears to be controlled by the variable ISProductFolder but I cannot find how to modify that location.
Can somebody please help?
Well, it is not surprise that each setup tool has its problems. Please note that there are no tools which can accurately detect your application dependencies. The best a tool can do is make suggestions. This is why most setup developers determine the dependencies themselves and manually include them in the installer.
If you're not happy with InstallShield, you can try a different setup tool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software
The free version of Advanced Installer includes a Visual Studio setup project which may help.
I have an application that uses the ms vc++ runtime. How should I install it on the end-user's system if it is not present? I was thinking of bundling it with the installer... but how would I do that as far as what to include? Is there some silent installer? If so, where can it be found? I can't seem to find it in the Windows SDK.
There is an interesting post about deploying the runtime libraries on the Visual C++ blog. The post is about VC8 so I'm not sure all the recommendations apply to VC9.
Here are your options according to Microsoft:
Use an .msi installer including the .MSM files for the VC
libraries you're using. These MSM
files install the libraries globally.
They also keep a reference count so
that the libraries are removed when
the last application using them gets
uninstalled.
Use "app-local"
deployment i.e. copy the
libraries and manifest files in your
application directory. This is a simpler
solution if you don't use an .msi
installer. Your app should still use the
system version of the libraries if they are more
up-to-date than your own.
Link everything statically (and avoid crt usage across dll boundaries)
Another option Microsoft discourage you from using is running the Visual C++ redist installer from your own installer.
I'm not sure what their reasons are. It will take a few extra megabytes and will not be reference counted but it still works very well AFAICT. You can pass the /q option to vc_redist_x86.exe to perform an unattended install (no user interaction).
It has it's own installation program. I've seen it usually run as a prereq step of a larger installer.
One way or the other, you need to list it in your manifest. So you might just as well deliver it as via SxS in your application rather than try to deliver a global copy to the target machine. SxS is a big hard subject, sadly. Hopefully someone will supply an answer with more details and I'll delete this one.