Inno Setup

Infobox Software
name = Inno Setup
caption = Inno Setup Compiler
developer = Jordan Russell and Martijn Laan
latest_release_version = 5.2.3.0
latest_release_date = release date and age|2008|03|10
operating_system = Microsoft Windows
genre = Setup Creator
license = [http://www.jrsoftware.org/files/is/license.txt Inno Setup License]
website = [http://www.innosetup.com InnoSetup.com]

Inno Setup is an open source script-driven installation system created in Borland Delphi by Jordan Russell. The first version was released in 1997.

History

Since Jordan Russell wasn't satisfied with InstallShield Express which he had received upon purchase of Borland Delphi, he decided to make his own installer.Fact|date=September 2007 At first, Inno Setup was little known. The first public version was 1.09.Fact|date=September 2007.

To make an installation package with version 1.09, an “ISS.TXT” file needed to be created in the installation directory. In the file, the user needed to supply variables and values which are still used in Inno Setup today. These variables served as the configuration of the installation package but many other features could not be changed. The installation compiler had no editor and was more of a shell to compile scripts.

Throughout Inno Setup's development, it was becoming more widely used. Since Inno Setup was and still is free and open source, many software companies started switching to the open source solution in software installationFact|date=September 2007. Since Inno Setup was based around scripting, fans of Inno Setup started ISTool and ScriptMaker to aid in visual and simpler ways to make installations for Inno Setup.

Inno Setup has won many awards including the Shareware Industry Awards three times in a row - from 2002 to 2004.

Many people have taken Inno Setup source code and used it to develop third-party versions of Inno Setup. An example is "My Inno Setup Extensions" by Martijn Laan. In June 2003 My Inno Setup Extensions was incorporated into Inno Setup.

Features

Key features

* Support for all modern versions of Microsoft Windows – 95, NT 4.0, 98, 2000, Me, XP, Server 2003, XP 64-bit, XP Professional and Vista. (No service packs are required.)
* Extensive support for installation of 64-bit applications on the 64-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Both the x64 and Itanium architectures are supported.
* Prior versions supported Windows NT 3.51 ( [http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdlold.php#2.0 Before v3.0] ) and Windows 3.X ( [http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdlold.php#1.2 Before v1.3] )
* Supports creation of a single EXE to install programs for easy online distribution.
* Supports disk spanning.
* Customizable setup types, e.g. Full, Minimal, Custom.
* Complete uninstall capabilities.
* Integrated support for “deflate”, bzip2, and 7-Zip LZMA file compression. The installer has the ability to compare file version info, replace in-use files, use shared file counting, register DLL/OCXs and type libraries, and install fonts.
* Creation of shortcuts, including in the Start Menu and on the desktop.
* Creation of registry and .INI entries.
* Integrated Pascal scripting engine.
* Support for multilingual installs.
* Support for passworded and encrypted installs.
* Silent install and uninstall.
* Full source code is available (Borland Delphi 2.0-5.0).

Missing features

* Does not support Unicode, due to its Delphi 2 roots.
* Does not support Modify/Repair type operations.
* Does not support Vista Administrator Elevation on demand (only when required for installation directory or registry manipulation).

See also

*List of installation software

References

External links

* [http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php Inno Setup Homepage]
* [http://www.vincenzo.net/isxkb/index.php?title=Main_Page The Inno Setup Extensions Knowledge Base]
* [http://www.paranoia.clara.net/articles/inno_setup_review.html Inno Setup Review by Dave Murray] - An extensive review of Inno Setup
* [http://www.lexpa.com/ Lexpa - Inno Setup integration for Visual Studio]