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This is a complete* list of tools for software developers (ISVs) to create setup programs that use Microsoft's "Windows Installer" technology, also known as "MSI". Not included in this list are tools in the following categories, which are listed on separate pages on InstallSite:
*Is a tool missing on this page? Let me know.
Technically you don't need to buy a toolkit to build MSI packages - the required tools are available in Microsoft's Platform SDK. Even if you are using one of the tools listed below you should download the Windows Installer SDK as it includes the latest documentation from Microsoft and usefuls tools like Orca.
License: Free
Microsoft Windows Installer SDK (Platform SDK download)
Starting with version 2003, Visual Studio (Professional Edition and higher) includes a Deployment project type that creates MSI packages. For Visual Studio 6 Microsoft offers Visual Studio Installer with similar functionality as a free download. However VisualStudio does not expose all the Windows Installer functionality.
License: Retail product, part of Visual Studio
For more information see the feature comparison chart.
Description from the company:
Advanced Installer is a Windows Installer authoring tool which enables developers and system administrators to easily build and repackage complex applications into reliable, ready to deploy MSI and EXE installers, patches and on-line updates. (The Java and Enterprise editions can create install packages for Mac OS X in addition to MSI setups.)
Uniquely focusing from its very beginnings on the ease of use, Advanced Installer is completely GUI-driven, with intuitive and simple access to all the powerful functionality it offers. Friendly wizards, smart assistants and re-packagers allow even non-experts to produce complete, valid and reliable installers in mere minutes, saving enterprises tens of thousands in training and implementation costs.
By using exclusively the industry standard Window Installer engine without proprietary scripting languages, and by carefully following its recommendations and best practices, Advanced Installer strives to create some of the cleanest, most correct MSI packages which effortlessly pass validation tests and logo certifications.
Advanced Installer is built on standard, open formats. Project files are XML, easily checked in source control systems. Multiple installer types can be defined to be built from a single project. Command-line mode operation allows integration in build scripts. Extensions always follow the Windows Installer recommendations and are provided in native modules for compliant, dependency-less installers.
Advanced Installer can import Inno Setup projects.
Advanced Installer is available in four editions, starting with the Freeware community edition and offering a 30-day trial period for the other editions.
Get more information and buy Advanced Installer via the InstallSite Shop
Manufacturer: Caphyon LTD (Romania), Caphyon LLC (USA)
License: Freeware / Commercial
This product is only available in German language
Beschreibung des Herstellers:
Der AKInstallerMSI erstellt Installationspakete, Mergemodulen und Patchen auf Basis der Windows® Installer Technologie (MSI). Er bietet über den Projekt-Assistenten den Import von VBP/SLN-Dateien (VB6, VB/C#/C++ .NET/C++ -Projekte (VS 2003-2005)) sowie den Projektabgleich zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt. Mittels Dialog-Editor erlaubt er die Anpassung der Setup-Dialoge an Ihre Bedürfnisse. Der AKInstallerMSI ermöglicht die Prüfung auf das Vorhandensein bestimmter Systemkomponenten wie z.B. DirectX. Vorlagen gestatten an vielen Stellen die schnelle und bequeme Zusammenstellung. Der AKInstallerMSI ermöglicht durch Testfunktionen wie Einstellung der Kompressionsstärke oder gar das Übergehen der Cabinet-Erstellung und des Imports der Mergemodule auch Unerfahrenen das schnelle Erstellen eines Setups für ihre Applikation.Hersteller: AKApplications (Deutschland)
Lizenz: Kommerziell
Description from the company:
With ActiSetup, you can make full-featured installations at a fraction of the price of most competitors. Featuring complete Windows Installer support, ActiSetup allows you to create your own MSI installation packages, patches, and even merge modules. In addition, ActiSetup includes a customizable setup launcher designed to simplify the process of installing prerequisites such as the .NET Framework.
ActiSetup lets you quickly create installations with a single step-by-step wizard, as well as directly edit the MSI tables for greater fine-tuning. ActiSetup even comes with an updater service, so you can effortlessly deliver patches to your users.Note: ActiSetup was last updated in June 2005
Manufacturer: Dacris Software, Inc. (Canada)
License: Commercial
Description from the manufacturer:
Desktop Authority MSI Studio is the complete application software packaging solution used by system administrators, software packagers and setup developers worldwide. It has a complete set of features to create Windows Installer (MSI) files from legacy software installations and tools to modify existing Windows Installer packages using transforms.
Order Desktop Authority MSI Studio in the InstallSite Shop
Manufacturer: ScriptLogic Corp. (USA)
License: Commercial
Description from the company:
DigitalWeb InstallWizard quickly creates setups, via an intuitive visual interface. Adding files, registry entries, and other elements is as easy as dragging and dropping them to the appropriate view. Most installations can be built within few minutes without any training.
Windows Installer (MSI) support is only included in the Professional edition.Manufacturer: DigitalWeb (no address on web site, domain is registered in Brasil)
License: Commercial
Description from the company:
GkSetup is a setup toolkit that allows you to create professional self-extracting setup files for your application within minutes. It will display your license and readme texts, manages Start Menu entries, and creates an automatic uninstaller. It DLL/OCX registration and there are several language packs available for free.
Windows Installer (MSI) support is only included in the Professional and E-Commerce editions which can create MSI and on-MSI setups from the same project file.Manufacturer: GkWare e.K. (Germany)
License: Commercial
Description from the company:
The two-way integrated RAD InstallAware IDE offers graphical choices for installation tasks such as files and registry entries, like any other Windows Installer tool. However, when you switch to the script view, you do not see a list of MSI tables, sequences and actions, but an easy to read (and manipulate) script that spells out each action to be taken by the MSI, using typical programming constructs like IF and END. And both the graphical and script views are always kept in sync by the IDE such that changes made in one view are always reflected in another.Manufacturer: InstallAware Software Corporation (USA)
License: Commercial
Description from the company:
Creating packages for setup and file delivery on all Windows platforms is made simple with InstallConstruct. With the step-by-step interface, you can create simple or advanced installers quickly, without time-consuming training or complex technical manuals. The latest release (6.5) also lets you create or rewrap your program as Windows Installer (MSI) with Elevated Privileges.
InstallConstruct gives you all the tools you need to create sophisticated installers easily. Select from one of the package formats, and create an easy-to-assemble installer or setup package with only the components you want to use. Customize the look with colors, fonts and graphics, edit the Windows Registry, create icons, Program Groups, Uninstallers and more - with the easy-to-understand wizard interface.
Included with the program are sample message scripts for English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. You may use them "as is" to distribute your package in these languages or you may customize or edit it the way you like it.Manufacturer: FileStream, Inc. (USA)
License: Commercial
Description from the company:
InstallShield, the most popular software installation tool combines power and flexibility with ease-of-use. First-time developers find it easy to create installations, while power users find its depth and flexibility perfect for developing complex software installations. Used on over 500 million PCs worldwide, InstallShield is the market-leading solution for Windows, servers and mobile devices. Also virtualized application packages for Microsoft App-V.
Owners of Visual Studio can download a Limited Edition free of charge.Available in several editions. For more information see the feature comparison chart.
Order InstallShield in the InstallSite Shop
Premier, Professional, or Express Editions. Full products and upgrades. Books and training courses.
Manufacturer: Flexera Software (USA). Previous company names include Acresso and Macrovision.
License: Commercial
Description from the company:
If you use Orca, you will love InstEd. If you use some of the more expensive tools, you may find that InstEd makes you more productive for the bread and butter packaging tasks.
InstEd was previously sold by Camwood Ltd. under the name appEditor.Manufacturer: instedit.com (Australia)
License: Freeware
Description from the company:
Instyler Setup is an application to create reliable Windows Installer (MSI) packages based on WiX technology. The product targets everyone who needs a solid Windows Installer based installation for their product or any kind of deployment project.
Unlike other utilities, Instyler Setup does not require in-depth MSI SDK knowledge. All complex MSI specific features have been nicely wrapped to allow very fast and intuitive development even of more complicated tasks like user defined dialogs or configuring prerequisites.
Manufacturer: Instyler Software (Germany)
License: commercial / free for educational institutions, non-profit organisations and freeware or open-source software developers
Description from the author:
IsWiX is a Windows Installer XML (WiX) document editor. It enables non-setup developers to collaborate with setup developers using WiX projects.Project Leader: Christopher Painter
License: Open Source
Description from the author:
izfree is a collection of free tools for authoring Windows Installer .MSI installation databases. izfree is designed for use in conjunction with the Orca database editor included in the Platform SDK.
izfree, formerly known as 'msidb', automates some tasks specific to the authoring of MSI installation database files with Orca. Orca provides a basic way to edit database tables, but doesn't create them automatically. izfree automates the following tasks:
- Create new Windows Installer compatible GUIDs
- Create a blank MSI package for editing
- Create features and components that install a directory tree of files
- Preview and clone user interface dialogs
izfree assumes that you are already familiar with Windows Installer and the MSI SDK documentation. If you are completely new to Windows Installer, you might want to start with Visual Studio Installer and experiment with creating some simple installations and examining the msi with Orca.
Author: Rich Thomson, Microsoft MVP for DirectX and MSI
License: Open Source
Description from the author:
MAKEMSI is a freeware tool which allows you to quickly and automatically create MSI based installers. Once set up subsequent rebuilds take minutes and in general require no MSI skills. MAKEMSI can actually build or update any Windows Installer database types, for example ICE validation suites or merge modules. It is the simplest tool available for MSI automation.
MAKEMSI should be considered as a replacement for anyone who currently manually builds or updates MSIs with table editing tools such as ORCA. Its main purposes are to consistently produce (or edit) MSIs in a simple manner and without user interaction. It promotes reuse and can gather required information from virtually anywhere (such as SQL databases or text files).
MAKEMSI includes a number of useful tools including one to dump or compare Windows Installer databases (an "MSI to TEXT" utility). The output (see see sample) is in a human readable format (unlike that of all other tool I have seen). The output can also be understood by MAKEMSI! Other tools include easy MD5 and Windows Installer GUID generation.Author: Dennis Bareis
License: Freeware
Description from the company:
MSI Factory makes the task of creating professional installers faster, easier and hassle-free. What makes MSI Factory different is the unique file-centered design view. You aren’t forced to deal with the complexity of MSI database tables, sequences and components (unless you want to – MSI Factory is as flexible as you need it to be). Most developers simply drop in their application files, customize a few dialog boxes using the visual dialog editor and then click “build”. MSI Factory includes all the advanced installer capabilities you want, plus the next generation power of WiX, an intelligent development environment, a revolutionary fully scriptable .EXE bootstrap wrapper and access to world class technical support.
Manufacturer: Indigo Rose Corporation (Canada)
License: commercial
Description from the company:
Nvn Installer is a professional tool for creating great-looking installation packages. Installers made with Nvn Installer work on all Windows systems and are fully MSI compatible.
Nvn Installer has multi-language support, it can install prerequisites and also has a command line interface. Nvn Installer internally uses WiX toolset to generate MSI packages, and you can view and save Wix Code generated while building installation package.Manufacturer: Naveen Hegde
License: free for non-commercial use, purchase required for commercial use
Description from the company:
QSetup PRO can produce setup files in the form of an MSI file as well as a traditional EXE file. Also the user can decide at anytime whether to generate an EXE or MSI installation from the same project definition. QSetup is unique in it's ability to create setup that will AUTO-UPDATE from the Internet when a new version of the program is available. QSetup PRO supports multilingual installations without the need to purchase additional language package.Only the PRO edition includes MSI support. The Lite and Studio editions create non-MSI setups.
Manufacturer: Pantaray Research
License: commercial
Description from the company:
Qwerty.Msi is designed to
Quickly learn about the installations created by other authors. Tool options such as Highlighting and GoTo enable you to gain the full knowledge of the installation building blocks and explore installation details in several straightforward steps. Try installations from different sources and you will certainly appreciate Windows Installer concept and performance.
Create and edit Windows Installer setup files. This tool lets you create your .msi files in the pure Windows Installer terms and the resulted file will contain entries that you have decided it must contain. Thus, the content as well as the behavior of your setup is always clear and predictable.
Debug Windows Installer setups. Embedded msi debugger helps you fix bugs and improve your setup package behavior.Manufacturer: unknown (no address on web site, domain owner lives in Russia)
License: Freeware (last update: March 2005)
SharpSetup plugs into Visual Studio and uses the IDE to build a multi-language external UI for your setup. For the MSI part it relies on WiX, and it also creates a launcher executable.
Description from the author:
SharpSetup is a framework that allows you to create graphical user interface (GUI) for your Windows Installer XML (WiX) based installer quickly and easily. With SharpSetup you can create one file installers with support for multiple languages, develop your installer directly in Visual Studio, both core installation logic and graphical user interface (using forms designer/editor), use MSBuild to automate build process (eg. on CruiseControl.NET/TFS build server), use pre-built controls (like disk space utilization box, feature tree, destination path control, installation progress bar) or create your own, use pre-built dialogs (like license agreement dialog, installation mode dialog, installation progress dialog, feature selection dialog and many more) or design your own, use wealth of extensibility points: from the ability to react on wizard events (step change events, control events), through reacting to Windows Installer messages, adding C++ code to bootstrapper to replacing whole functional blocks like bootstrapper or the WinForms based user interface, utilize standard tools that you use during your day to day development, including source control tools (SharpSetup uses text, not binary files), translation tools (resources are in standard resx format), etc.Author: Tomasz Grobelny
License: Freeware
Description from the company:
War Setup is an application to make .msi software installation packages. It uses the free Wix toolset from Microsoft to build the .msi files. The target audience for this application is Software Developers. War Setup is designed to be very easy to use. It's the perfect install tool for the lazy Open Source developer. With built in support for Visual Studio C++ integration and the ability to add directories recursively, it's very easy to add software libraries and generated documentation to the install package. War Setup is also well suited to handle most install requirements for commercial software.Manufacturer: Konsulent Jarle Aase (Norway)
License: Open Source
Description from the company:
wItem Installer (formerly wItem Installer2Go) is a powerful, easy to use, highly interactive tool for creating reliable Windows Installer packages that meet the Windows 2000/XP logo certification guidelines. Professional developers rely on Installer to quickly and easily create reliable MSI installation packages using the latest Microsoft technologies.
wItem Installer is script-free and does not require the user to have any programming background, nor does it require the user to learn any application-specific language! It allows you to use a point-and-click interface to create and manage installation projects based on your business needs. Besides that this tool will allow you to create self-extracting executable files for distribution over the Web, Internet, Intranet and e-mail your data files, graphic images or whatever else you want to distribute!Note: On 18th September 2007 wItem Software acquired certain rights to distribute, maintain, and further develop Installer2Go. The development of Installer2Go was partially funded by wItem Software. In April 2009 the product was renamed to wItem Installer. The previous manufacturer, SDS Software, still sells an older version of Installer2Go, see above.
Note: wItem also offer a product named wItem Installer for Java to create MSI packages for Java applications.
Manufacturer: wItem Software (Russia)
License: Freeware / Commercial
Description from the company:
Witem Installer for Java is a professional and easy-to-use tool which allows you to create reliable setup packages for Java applications for deployment on Windows platform. It doesn't require the Java developer have Windows Installer technology background. Intuitive user interface allows you to create professional installation packages in just a few minutes.Note: wItem also offer a product named wItem Installer (formerly Installer2Go).
Manufacturer: wItem Software (Russia)
License: Freeware / Shareware
The Windows Installer Xml (WiX) toolset is composed of a compiler, a linker, a lib tool and a decompiler. It generates MSI and MSM files from XML input. It doesn't include a GUI frontend to create the project files, but there are a couple of projects that plan to fill this gap. Votive, which is part of the WiX project, is a Visual Studio extension. It allows you to create "WiX projects" that act like any other project in a VS solution.
WiX was created by Rob Mensching, a Microsoft employee and former member of the MSI team, in his free time and released as open source. It is used by several teams inside Microsoft to create their setups.For more information see the feature comparison chart.
Project Leader: Rob Mensching
License: Open SourceWhile WiX doesn't include an IDE, there are free and commercial IDEs that build upon WiX:
- Instyler Setup (commercial, free for non-profit)
- IsWiX (open source)
- MSI Factory (commercial)
- Nvn Installer (free for non-commercial use, purchase required for commercial use)
- War Setup (open source)
- WiXAware (commercial)
- WiXEdit (open source)
Read Rob Mensching's comments on some of the WiX editors.
Another approach to create a front end for WiX is Wix# (WixSharp). It's a syntax translator that translates from C# syntax into WiX syntax. Wix# at CodeProject.com
SharpSetup is a Visual Studio add-in to create a custom UI for your WiX based installer.
There are several other GUI projects for WiX registered on SourceForge.net, but there's no active development going on, any many are stuck in planning or pre-alpha stage: KHIX, WinWIX, WiXer, WiX GUI, WiXShield, wixstudio, WixTool, WixTool Red Edition (aka WixTool 2 by Sebastian Mark) , WiXTrim, WixWizzard. Search SourceForge.net for "wix" to get the latest list.
Nvin Installer (on Google Code) has been replaced by Nvn Installer.
Description from the company:
As you use the WiXAware visual designers to configure your settings like files, shortcuts, and registry keys, WiXAware generates the underlying XML code for you. Switch to the XML view to review the code that has been generated, with the ability to directly edit it. Switch back to the visual designers, and your latest changes are reflected. WiXAware even offers a visual dialog editor with automatic WiX code generation and two-way integrated editing.Manufacturer: InstallAware Software Corporation (USA)
License: Commercial
Description from the project page:
WixEdit is an editor for XML source code of the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset. WixEdit lets you create MSI and MSM setup packages with the WiX Toolset. It provides a visual representation of the dialogs and an easy way to edit the WiX source files.Author: Jasper Keuper
License: Open Source
Several open source projects for MSI authoring tools have been started on SourceForge.net, but many of them have become inactive. There are also closed-source products where development has stalled before they have been released to manufacturing. Such projects are listed here only briefly:
The following products have been renamed or replaced by successor products:
This table compares some popular Windows Installer authoring tools. It is mainly based on information that is publicly available from the respective manufacturers; not all of it has been validated. Features that are actually provided by the Windows Installer service, not by the authoring tool (such as advertising, repair, rollback etc.) are common to all products and therefore not listed. This table focuses on Windows Installer setups. Some tools can also create Windows setups that don't use MSI, but use a proprietary scripting language.
Please click here to open the table in a separate window
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