1. Can I do automated builds using TFS? Answer: Yes. I currently have more than 10 automated (scheduled) nightly builds in TFS that produce compiled setup projects. 2. Is it a good idea or should I be using something else? Answer: You could also use Visual Build Pro to do this as an alternative. 3. How do I do this? Answer: There is no easy quick way to describe this, but basically you'll need to create a "dummy" Visual Studio solution (*.sln) that contains your InstallShield *.ism as one of its projects. That's because TFS is not designed to directly build *.ism project files. There's more detail in a thread I posted here: http://community.flexerasoftware.com/showthread.php?203223-Opening-InstallShield-Projects-in-Microsoft-Visual-Studio&p=483953#post483953 4. Would files inherit 'read only' permissions from TFS for my build? Answer: Yes, and in fact if you do *not* want the files to be set to read-only after they are installed onto the target computer, you must modify the TFS template to remove them before compiling the setup project. But that's another story. 5. Should this process actually take place on the TFS server or perhaps a Production machine would be better? (Then how would it access the 30,000 files). Answer: Typically you would set up a "build box" for this, which is a separate computer from the TFS server. In the build definition you can specify which build box to use, if you have more than one. The way it accesses the 30,000 files is by specifying their location in the TFS repository on the "Workspace" tab of the build definition. There are many other flags, switches, and path parameters that need to be set in the build definition, and its beyond the scope of this user board to go into that -- you'd need to go to an MSDN website to get the details. I know this is an incomplete answer, but I hope it will get you started. 😉 ... View more

Thanks for your Reply, i have one more doubt i want to add some custom theme on dialogs but in professional edition there are 11 themes already, but in IDE only 5 themes visible, so how i add my own custom theme..??? Here is a link that discusses how to create a new theme; note that this is for an older version of InstallShield, but it will probably still work. I have never tried this myself. http://installjournal.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-create-custom-dialog-themes-for.html ... View more

1) Go to the Dialogs view (under "User Interface") 2) In the center window, right-click on "All Dialogs" and select "New Dialog" 3) This launches the Dialog wizard ... just follow the wizard. More details are provided in the Help that is installed as part of InstallShield. On the main menu at the top of the page, click Help / Contents, and search on the word Dialog. Looking around I am sure you will find what you need to know about adding controls (radio buttons, edit boxes, etc.) and how to use them, also how to insert the dialog into your user interface. Good luck! 🙂 ... View more

First of all, if you are using Team Foundation Server 2012 then you'll need to use InstallShield 2012 Spring with SP1. If you're using TFS 2010 then you won't need SP1 for InstallShield 2012 Spring. Have you taken these steps? -- 1) Open your VS2012 *.sln solution, add the *.ism InstallShield project. This creates the *.isproj "bridge" project, which connects the *.ism to the *.sln. 2) In VS2012 use the Configuration Manager to make sure the install project builds whenever the solution builds (select its checkbox in the configuration manager's "Release" view). 3) Check in all changes (i.e., the changeset) to TFS. 4) Create a TFS build definition that builds the Release configuration for the *.sln. In the build definition, on the "Process" tab, expand the "Advanced" tab and set MSBuild Platform to X86. Do this even if the operating system on the build box is 64-bit. That's because InstallShield installs as a 32-bit app on a 64-bit computer, and the x86 flag helps TFS "find" the InstallShield programs. If you specify "Auto", which is the default value, it will look under "Program Files" instead of "Program Files (x86)", and fail to find the InstallShield programs. 5) Save the build definition, and Queue the build. Note: modifying a build definition does *not* create a changeset to check into TFS -- it's considered a "live" change that happens as soon as you save it. Special note: if even one of the projects in your Visual Studio solution is a C++ project you will not be able to build the install project! If they are all C# projects, then the install project will build fine. I have reported this as a bug to FlexeraSoftware personnel and they have been able to reproduce it. Also, in the Releases view of Installshield, remember to set "Distribute After Build" = Yes on the "Events" tab; this will copy the compiled install to the area where will get picked up and copied over to the "DropZone" for TFS (enabling your uses to go grab the compiled install). Also on the "Events" tab, fill out the "Copy To Folder" information. E.g., ..\..\..\Binaries In other words don't use a path like C:\Builds\MyBuild\Build1\Binaries because that's an absolute path, and TFS does not always use the same path ... part of the path is the build name, which changes with each build, so you need to use relative instead of absolute paths. Same thing applies for all your path variables (Media/Path Variables in InstallShield). Hope this helps. It took me a long time to discover all these things on my own. ... View more

This might be an acceptable workaround, although it does not create an IE Favorite. The approach is to install a *.url file which will open the website when double-clicked, and supply a shortcut to that file. Lesson Learned: How to make a shortcut that launches the browser and sends it to a specific website. 1. Create a *.txt file, say MyWebsite.txt 2. Open the *.txt file in Notepad, and enter this: [InternetShortcut] URL=http://www.microsoft.com 3. Modify the extension of the file; rename it as MyWebsite.url 4. Now when you double-click this shortcut, the "default browser" (Internet Explorer or anything other browser) will launch and go to the specified website. As learned in the following website: http://community.installshield.com/showthread.php?t=154412&highlight=internet+shortcut ... View more

Actually, this error also occurs with standalone (i.e., not just concurrent) licensing. I am trying to build an InstallShield 2012 Spring SP1 project. I use a Team Foundation Server 2012 build definition, which kicks off a Visual Studio 2012 "build definition" that compiles a *.sln file which has the InstallShield *.isproj as one of its projects (i.e., the InstallShield *.ism is "embedded" into the Visual Studio 2012 *.sln, so the setup is simply one of many projects in the solution). This worked fine until a few days ago, when it just stopped with Error -7159. However, I can build/compile other *.sln files that include other *.ism/*.isproj files on the same computer, no problem. Save version of Visual Studio, same version of InstallShield. So the license can't be unitialized or expired, or all builds would fail on that computer. Sure hope someone figures this out soon. 😞 ... View more

You actually open the *.sln file and embed the *.ism file, which creates the *.isproj file. You compile the *.sln file to get the InstallShield setup to build. See if this thread will help: http://community.flexerasoftware.com/showthread.php?203223-Opening-InstallShield-Projects-in-Microsoft-Visual-Studio ... View more

1. Open your Visual Studio *.sln file. 2. In Solution Explorer, right-click on the *.sln (the solution, at the top of the Solution Explorer window). 3. From the pop-up menu choose Add / Existing Project. 4. Windows Explorer will open, navigate to the InstallShield *.ism file and click Open. 5. This will add the InstallShield project to your Visual Studio solution. You will see the new project in the Solution Explorer. 6. Now whenever you build the solution you will also compile the InstallShield project. You can choose to exclude building the InstallShield project if you wish, for example use the Visual Studio Configuration Manager to de-select the InstallShield project when building in Debug mode. 7. Note that this automatically creates a "bridge" project, *.isproj, which is in the same directory as the *.ism project. The *.isproj project "ties together" the Visual Studio *.sln and the InstallShield *.ism. ... View more

I have downloaded and applied Service Pack 1 (when I do Help/About it says InstallShield 2012 Spring - Premier Edition, Version 19, Service Pack 1). However, I have the same error, only the Beta .Net 4.5 is used. This puts me in an infinite loop ... it installs the framework (beta), reboots, checks for but fails to find the framework (final), reboots, etc. :eek: Any suggestions on what to do? ... View more

You can try using the prerequisites editor to edit the prerequisite. Go to Application Data / Redistributables. Right-click on the .Net 40 entry and choose Edit Prerequisite. There are various tabs that contain values you can modify. I have no problems at all with .net 4.0 but the 4.5 puts me in an infinite loop, always reboots, never recognizes that it has already successfully installed it. ... View more

You have probably already done this, but make sure the custom dialog has been removed from the user interface sequence: Behavior and Logic / Custom Actions and Sequences / Sequences / Installation / User Interface / expand the "Install Welcome" dialog block. Select the dialog immediately preceeding your custom dialog, right-click it, "Edit Behavior", select the "Next" pushbutton in the list of controls, and for the NewDialog event select in the Argument field, use the drop-down combo box to select which dialog should come next (i.e., skip over your custom dialog by *not* selecting it in the drop-down combo box). You can remove it from the list of dialogs by Additional Tools / Direct Editor / expand "Tables" and click on Dialog. Click on your custom dialog in the table, remove it by clicking the "X" icon in the toolbar at the top of the window containing the list of dialogs. ... View more

If you are simply trying to install certain files to a subdirectory under the CommonAppDataFolder then of course you could just put those files in a component whose Destination value is: [CommonAppDataFolder]MyProduct\MyFiles But if you want to define a string value that equates to the value of the CommonAppDataFolder, you could use SysInfo to just set that string yourself, based on what OS you're on. Use SYSINFO.nISOSL as described below (taken from online help). Based on the return value, just manually define the string to be the value you already know it would be on that OS. Not an elegant solution, but it would work. Another way of using SysInfor to do this: if (SYSINFO.WINNT.bWinXP) then MessageBox("Installing on Windows XP",INFORMATION); // set string value, e.g., strCmnApDatFldr = "...FullyDefinedValue..." endif; SYSINFO.nISOSL Value indicates the operating system of the target machine. Possible values are the following: •ISOSL_WIN95—Windows 95 •ISOSL_WIN98—Windows 98 •ISOSL_WINME—Windows Millennium Edition •ISOSL_NT40—Windows NT 4.0 •ISOSL_WIN2000—Windows 2000 •ISOSL_WINXP—Windows XP Edition •ISOSL_WINSERVER2003—Windows Server 2003 •ISOSL_WINVISTA—Note that Windows Vista and Windows Server “Longhorn” use the same major and minor version numbers. Therefore, if you want to use InstallScript to distinguish between Windows Server “Longhorn” and Windows Vista, check whether SYSINFO.nOSProductType = VER_NT_WORKSTATION; for Windows Vista, this is TRUE; for Windows Server “Longhorn,” it is FALSE. ... View more

Yes, for an InstallScript msi project you need to supply a response file. But for a basic msi you do not. To create the uninstall response file: 1. Install the product. 2. Open an administrative DOS prompt and type: setup.exe /x /r /f1"C:\temp\UNINST.ISS" 3. Uninstall dialogs appear, click with your mouse as you normally would to remove the app. 4. UNINST.ISS will be created. To use it during removal: setup.exe /s /f1"UNINST.ISS" Note there are NO spaces between f1 and "UNINST.ISS" If you have several apps that you want to automatically and silently uninstall in this manner you could write a C++ or C# app that starts a process for each uninstall. The process would need to use the fully-defined path to the UNINST.ISS file ... you could include each app's *.ISS file in the list of files that app installs. ... View more

This link from the InstallShield knowledge base might help: http://kb.flexerasoftware.com/doc/Helpnet/installshield18helplib/MMBuildLocation.htm ... View more

It might be the structure of your if-then-endif statements. I got this similar code to work, separated into two separate if-then-endif statements: if (Is(DOTNETFRAMEWORKINSTALLED, REGDB_KEYPATH_DOTNET_20)) then MessageBox("dotnet 20 installed", MB_OK); endif; if (Is(DOTNETSERVICEPACKINSTALLED, "1|" + REGDB_KEYPATH_DOTNET_20)) then MessageBox(dotnet 20 SP1 installed", MB_OK); endif; ... View more