dundee -
Posts: 1
Nickname: dundee
Registered: Jul, 2007
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Re: GUI f��r Windows Installer XML (WiX)
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Posted: Jul 9, 2007 3:50 PM
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I reviewed Setup Factory for Windows Installer (Wix technology) and wanted to share my thoughts.
Pros:
--> Simple and user friendly interface
--> Wizard support to create installation package
--> Comprehensive coverage of all the installer components
--> Wizard for application search
--> Support for modularization of features and components
--> Good target system search capability
--> Support for adding 3rd party merge modules
--> Support for customization of dialogs
Areas of Enhancement:
--> Support for enhanced installer security such as enhanced serial number entry or setup expiration dates configuration.
--> Support for pre-defined custom actions
--> Support for additional pre-defined launch conditions
Details:
This is a review of Setup Factory for Windows Installer. The evaluation was done on a Windows XP Professional computer. Setup Factory for Windows Installer is based on Windows Installer for XML toolset technology. The user interface was easy to understand and very intuitive. An easy to understand wizard walks the user through the steps to set up a new project.
The Files page is easy to work with to customize and add files to the installer. The file properties offer options to create shortcuts, advertise shortcuts, register libraries, register assemblies and set some vital file properties. One feature that would help the user is to optionally exclude files from being installed on the target computer. This would allow the user to use the excluded files during the installation process but at the same time not install on the target computer.
The built-in dialogs are simple and easy to use. They are customizable too.
There are several advanced configurations that can be used to the users advantage. Some of them are: selecting the OS to run on, selecting the user rights/privileges, etc.
Several other configurations found are the ability to create shortcuts, capability to define file associations, capability to read from/write to registry, capability to create/edit INI files, capability to set up environment variables, Windows services, ODBC, etc.
There is also a capability to add merge modules to the installer. Everything is ok here except it would be nice if merge modules are also automatically detected and the user has to only select the required merge modules because many users may not know the location of the merge modules on their computer.
Wrap Up:
Setup Factory for Windows Installer is a great new generation installer. It is lightweight yet powerful. It not only features all the building blocks needed to create a good installer but does it so efficiently and effortlessly. I believe this can be attributed in part to the WiX technology whose flexible and advanced technology was quickly capitalized by Setup Factory. But the bulk of the credit obviously goes to Setup Factory for building an install creator that uses powerful WiX technology while at the same time presenting it to the end user as a simple and easy to use program. When I searched on the internet for install creators that use WiX technology I found only one other software but it was just as complex as a typical MSI install creator. This is just the beginning and I am positive that in the coming versions Setup Factory for Windows Installer will provide many more rich and enhanced features.
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