InstallAware

It's not really clear to me what the PROGRESSMODE variable does. Apparently there are two settings: <empty> and MARQUEE. Can anyone clarify what the settings mean and when I might want to change them?

Thanks.

Its reffering to the behavior of the progress bar..
If not set to marquee , then it has the normal progress bar behavior (increasing per time base/ event etc).
If it is set to marquee then if the progress bar indicator floats right and left.
It is used for non-countable situations, like loops ..

If you have a laptop with a wireless card, you may have seen the wireless connection progress bar while establishing link with a router. Its not exactly a progress bar, its more like a marquee bar.

This is what the MARQUEE value is used for - it sets the progress bar to use this mode. This is helpful when performing operations with an unknown duration (or where it is not possible to capture progress feedback from the operation). It advises the end-user that the operation is under-way, and that the installer has not hung.

On older Windows systems where the system control for the MARQUEE mode is not available, a regular progress bar is used which increments itself at regular intervals, to create the impression of regular progress being made.

And of course, if MARQUEE is not set, your progress bars work normally.

You can set the MARQUEE mode when running external programs, or installing runtimes that you do not have a way to capture the progress of. You should clear MARQUEE when using (Un)Install MSI Setup or performing a full installation, since then accurate progress is displayed.

Hope that helps!

That helps a lot - thanks. Are you saying that if I set PROGRESSMODE to MARQUEE and issue a Run Program with a wait-for-completion that I should see the progress bar move?

Yes exactly - as long as you are already showing a dialog with a progress bar set to receive progress messages.