Advanced Installer is intended to build installation packages for Windows operating system. The tool can create not only MSI and EXE files but also other types of packages. It has a modern and intuitive interface. Despite the evident complexities of the operations it supports, you will not feel overwhelmed. It is enough to select the kind of project and let the corresponding wizard lead the way. Yet, if you have any difficulties, it is possible to consult its excellent online user guide.
Besides from the desktop, the program can be used from the command line as well as a Visual Studio extension. It can build a wide range of packages. In this regard, there are installer templates for Visual Studio, ASP.NET, Real Studio, Visual Basic, .NET, RAD Studio and client/server applications, among others. Likewise, it allows creating Java applications, patches, add-ins, merge modules, as well as apps for Windows Store and Windows Mobile. Besides, the tool lets you convert between installer types. What is more, you can publish the apps on the Cloud for easy distribution.
When you create an installation package, you can add several identifying details as well as software identification. Similarly, you can set the target folders. It is good that the installer can detect and upgrade outdated versions which avoids installing two different versions of the same product on the same machine.
As to security, the program lets you use a license key or configure a trial period for shareware products. Fortunately, it also uses a strong standard (SHA256) to digitally sign the package and protect its integrity.
Good news is that the interface of the installation package is quite customizable. For instance, there are various themes to choose from. Also, you can build multi-language installers. Besides, you can have the package display a sequence of images while it is being installed.
To sum up, Advanced Installer is probably the best software of its type out there. It comes with multiple features, which can even be extended through writing your own code in various popular programming languages. Although it is good that the program can be evaluated for free, this is absolutely an expensive product and it is way beyond the reach of many users, particularly those working on low budgets.
v8.8.2 [Dec 23, 2011]
The 8.8 release brings full support for VMware ThinApp. Together with the existing App-V support, Advanced Installer is ready to fulfill all your Application Virtualization needs.
The powerful Prerequisites support is being redesigned for simpler, more intuitive operation. The single-click, ready-to-use Predefined Prerequisites can be selected and scheduled at any time during install to make the installation of frameworks, runtimes and 3rd party tools easier than ever before.
A newly developed internal Digital Signature Tool removes the requirement of using external digitally sign tools, making your installer creation even simpler.
New features:
- ThinApp Virtualization support
- Internal Digital Signature Tool
- Single-click predefined prerequisites
- Unified Prerequisites view includes: pre&post-install, chained and feature-based
- UltiDev Web Server predefined prerequisite
Enhancements to existing features:
- Resume installation after a reboot triggered by a feature-based prerequisite
- Progress dialog when the bootstrapper prepares large packages
- Dialog sharing for multiple chains by using Add Dialog feature
- System store certificate browsing for digital signature
- Improved reference detection when deleting a folder used by a file
- License file browsing when registering Advanced Installer by email
- Moved Product IDs information in Product Details page
- Added a valid default URL in launch application page for Tomcat project wizard
- Automatically trim spaces for service account information
- Added display language selection dialog option in new project wizard
- File extension Default Program restoration during uninstall
Bug fixes
- Crash when disabling the updater in projects created with Advanced Installer 7.0.1 or older
- Internet connection predefined launch condition did not work in EXE bootstrapper
- Error when using a duplicate name in Windows Mobile folder picker
- Error when replacing a pseudo-formatted ProgId name with its resolved value
- Error when creating a new project with Visual Studio
- Shortcut name was not updated when modified through Edit Shortcut dialog
- "Synchronize value with the assembly file" option did not work
- Spring theme was not resized correctly on systems with custom DPI settings
- Volume Cost List control displayed negative values in enhanced UI
- Feature-based prerequisites ignored custom download folders
- /loadpathvars command line option did not work
- /help command line option did not work correctly
- Table Editor was not refreshed correctly when switching from a MAC OS X build to a MSI build
- Build output path was not set correctly when duplicating a build
- Copy/Paste did not work correctly for builds
- ExitDialog was shown instead of FatalError dialog when a chained installation failed
- Software Identification files and folders allowed rename and move operations
- Software Identification folder was not removed when disabling the option
- Software Identification XML name was not set correctly when using formatted values in the Identifier field
- Environment variable install behavior was not loaded correctly when editing PATH variable
- EXE updates used an incorrect default detection criteria
- Service control operation was not updated correctly when renaming its component
- Custom launch condition list was not updated when importing an MSI
- No component was selected by default in Uninstall Cleanup wizard
- Installation\Product Information\Product Details menu did not work
- Build time was not calculated correctly for Patch projects
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