Abandoning InstallShield for Wise

[CChong]

Since there are really no books on InstallShield AdminStudio, i am going to have to recommend to my manager not to use AdminStudio, but Wise Installer. The Webinars are too general and the book recommended on this site isn't really about AdminStudio. It seems like no one else knew of any books or resources, so AdminStudio must be too new.

[CChong]

Please check the following link
http://www.installshield.com/news/books/application-repackaging/default.asp

This book by Robert Dickau and Bob Baker covers almost every aspect of Windows Installer technology and AdminStudio. It goes into fair detail in explaining the Repackaging process, ConflictSolver, MSI Customization using InstallShield Tuner, Application Isolation using InstallShield Application Isolation Wizard and much more.
I think you should go through this book.

[dschur]

mkabrisky,

Please don't give up on us so quickly, you'll be missing out on a great product if you do. In addition to the 750 page book, loaded with AdminStudio specifics, that Amber outlined, make sure to check out the Traning manuals at:
http://www.installshield.com/ispress/default.asp#tm
and also give the online help a chance, along with the quick start guide that is in AdminStudio when you start it. There's a lot of great information in all of these places. There's also a number of training courses available.

[CChong]

mkabrisky- Have you used Wise Installer? I downloaded the Eval version to try it out before getting utterly frustrated with it. AdminStudio is SO much better. If you're using Adminstudio, you must be doing some Repackaging. If so, the book mentioned above is quite useful.

[CChong]

Aynone know where I can get the above mentioned book in the UK ? Can't seem to find it on the usual book sites...

Jon

[CChong]

You can buy this book from www.amazon.com or if you check this link http://www.installshield.com/news/books/application-repackaging/default.asp there is a buy now button that you can use to buy this book.

[CChong]

Hmmm yeah but ordering it from installshields site costs £19 (about 30 dollars) in shipping!!

I'll see if I can order it through amazon.co.uk, maybe they can supply it even though I can't find it on there...

Thanks
Jon

[RobertDickau]

Hmmm... Perhaps contact our (InstallShield's) Bristol office to verify that shipping cost? http://www.installshield.com/contact/emea.asp

[CChong]

They verified it as £19 so I'll leave it for now unless I can find it somewhere else in the UK. The £19 charge is ridiculous for a book no matter how big and heavy it is 🙂

Jon

[turbokitty]

To be honest, our company found that book by Baker and Dickau to be utterly useless. It's far too detailed in areas you'll never use, and extremely vague on topics that are essential. That, and it's totally unorganized.
The Help file built into Developer is your best bet. It's quite good. The training manuals they point you to aren't terrible, but not worth the money in my opinion.
I've never used WISE so I can't comment on that.

[iannorthwood]

So far (I'm on day 5 of an eval) I'm with ditching IS for Wise, too.

Something as trivial as setting the install to NOT display in ARP is right there in Wise, but how to do that in IS's GUI? No clue...Yes, I *could* edit the property directly bu then, why use a GUI?

Also, Wise shows the destination folder view as it would REALLY be, not using the variable names (i.e. as 'Program Files' rather than '[ProgramFilesFolder]'.

Another of the *major* goodies for me is to flag a folder with wildcards through the GUI so that, whatever gets put there ends up on the destination: very handy for adding toolbars to Office Shortcut Bar or Quick Launch toolbar. Again, no doubt I can do that in IS, but how?