InstallShield Created by InstallShield Software Corporation Version: 5.5 Distribution: CD and electronic

Rating

InstallShield has long been the industry's most popular installation utility, with good reason. A powerful scripting language combined with helpful wizards and templates creates a good environment for deploying your application.

For Visual Basic programmers, InstallShield has a VB project setup that will scan your project for dependencies and generate the necessary installation script. I've seldom had to modify this script, and when I do, it's usually only minor changes. The result is a clean setup application which offers the usual features: select folder, setup type, customization, enter serial key and user data, and so on.

Because of its power and flexibility, InstallShield can seem confusing at first. It's easy to get lost in all the different categories: file groups, components, setup types. Deciding which file goes where is about as difficult as designing a good object model for your application, but thank God InstallShield lets you make that decision for yourself.