InstallAware 6.5: New Features

[CandiceJones]

Vista Glass Support: Create custom glass regions in your install wizards. Glassed installers will still remain fully backwards compatible, all the way back to Windows 95 Gold.

To add glass to your setup wizards, use the Dialog Designer. Add the new VistaGlass component (on the Win32 tab) to your dialogs, and set its properties to create glass regions on your dialogs.

Automatic Saving of Web Media Blocks: The install engine can now automatically save each downloaded web media block into a backup folder. This will assist your end-users in re-installing the software on another machine or at a later time without re-downloading.

To automatically save web media blocks, simply set the new pre-defined variable COPYWEBLOCK to a non-empty value that is your desired backup folder.

Obtain Group Policy Deployment Path: You can now determine when setups are being deployed through group policy, and obtain the deployment path.

Read the new pre-defined variable $GPOPATH$. When non-empty, this variable is indicative of Group Policy deployment, and points to the full path where your MSI file resides.

Reload Setup Settings During Upgrades: When installing a newer version on top of an older version, the setup engine can now automatically fetch settings from the older version (such as the target directory, feature selections, and so on).

Set the new pre-defined compiler variable LOADOLDDATA to TRUE to enable this behavior.

Custom Path Browsing: Directory browsers, edit boxes, and browse buttons worked in sync only when assigned to the $TARGETDIR$ variable. All of these controls can now be assigned to work with custom variables also. This lets you build dialogs where multiple destination paths are chosen simultaneously.

To use directory browsers and edit boxes with a custom path variable:
a. Set their "Receives Information" field to "[Written Variable Value]",
b. Set their "Writes Values to Variable" field to your custom variable.

To use browse buttons with a custom path variable:
a. Set their "Performs Action" field to "Select Custom Folder",
b. Set their "Name" property to your custom variable.