InstallShield alternative?

[nmarler]

Can anyone recommend a good alternative to InstallShield (specifically, something less expensive)? I've searched sourceforge.net but didn't come up with anything, wondering if anyone out there has any suggestions.

I regularly work with VB6, MSVC++ 6, and C#, and would like to find a good installer that can cover them all.

[PeejAvery]

Take a look at the following. One of these might work for you.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search
Wise Installation Studio

[BytePtr]

Innosetup is pretty good.
I have used it alot.

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

[Zaccheus]

Innosetup is pretty good.
I have used it alot.

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

Very very good!

[spoulson]

I recommend looking at NSIS. I've used it for one of my projects. It's open source and pretty straightforward with examples and extensible for custom install code.

[nmarler]

Thanks to you all for the recommendations. The most votes here (and elsewhere on the Web) seem to be for Inno Setup and NSIS, I'll be taking a look at them both.

-- Is there any one thing that sets Inno and NSIS apart from each other, any reason to use one over the other?

-- Quick question regarding NSIS... it looks like it gives you a choice of GUI to develop scripts, is the Eclipse editor the best to use?

Thanks again

[Zaccheus]

In InnoSetup, simple things are easy to do yet there are many many advanced features which let you solve common tasks very elegently.

Inno uses plain text INI style entries - things like 'put this exe there' and 'create this reg-entry' are very simple to add/edit. Each action can be conditional on user choices and/or the target environment.

For more complex actions there's support for running Pascal script functions, which (amoungst other things) let you create and use COM automation objects such as MSXML DOM objects.

[ahoodin]

Wise Installer

[ChrisJn]

This thread is a bit old, but I thought my finding may help others.

I was searching for a cheaper or free alternative to InstallShield. I tried WiX but found it too complicated. In the end I found Advanced Installer. It's mostly oriented towards usability, so there are a lot of wizards and built-in stuff.

So if you're looking for an easy solution, you can try it. It even has a free version.

[ahoodin]

In InnoSetup, simple things are easy to do yet there are many many advanced features which let you solve common tasks very elegently.

Inno uses plain text INI style entries

Yes I have used InnoSetup to make great installation programs! I also find that InnoSetup Scripts are easily debugged and very flexible.