InstallAware

What is it? I've read what I can about it and the official announcement says you can switch in and out of it as you want? It raises a question if someone could answer it for me?

When would you want to do so?

It seems an elegant solution...if I could only understand the problem.

I've also read the post and yes, it sounds like there are certain scenarios where it would be great (invalid Windows Installer installation for example).

I quite like the idea of being able to reduce the size of our installation by not needing to send out Windows Installer 3.x with the packages.

Does the InstallAware Native Engine follow _exactly_ the same installation rules as Windows Installer? Specifically, I want to know if I can remove the uninstallation code that uninstalls the previous version during an upgrade, and do an "always overwrite" in the Native Engine. We have a couple of hundred zip files (obviously no file version) so we find it incredibly hard to make sure the installation always overwrites the files, and I'm getting sick of our uninstallations working during upgrade, but then the install of the new version falling over, leaving no program installed whatsoever!

In case you're wondering, we don't just do patches because from one install to the next our customers can replace a computer or 5, meaning they need the full install. I don't know about your customers, but a lot of ours can't be trusted to keep the last program install CD along with any patches that have gone out. Best to keep it simple :-]

So, if anyone can give us more info about the Native Engine (aside from what's in the press release) that'd be great.
Can I start doing uninstall-free upgrades?

Cheers,

Bob T

Bump!

Come on InstallAware, nay chance of getting an answer to a few of these questions

Thanks!

Dear InstallAware users,

Our hybrid installation technology means that you can switch between Windows Installer and Native Code setup engines at runtime. As you know, the Native Engine allows you to do things that are not an option with Window Installer, such as:
* Install, repair, and uninstall applications in Windows Safe Mode
* Use loop constructs like while...wend and repeat...until
* Immediately execute setup actions without having to batch them all
* Increased runtime decision making capability and setup intelligence
* Complete immunity to any potential Windows Installer instability on target system
* Full control over file overwrites and error handling
* Much faster installation speeds
That being said, you might still want to create an installation that decides at runtime which engine to use - the Native Engine or Windows Installer, depending on the selected features, target system and so forth.

Bob, technically you can - you could use the NATIVE_OVERWRITE_OLDER in order to tell InstallAware's Native Engine to automatically overwrite old files. Which installation rules are you referring to?

Hi Aviv,

Thanks for that explanation. I'm after the ability to overwrite all existing files, regardless of their created/modified date or version, with files from my installation.

Is there a whitepaper or post somewhere about the variables available in Native installation mode?


Thanks also to Steve for the bump!

Bob T

Dear Bob,

Definitely - the pre-defined variables help file (F1 in the InstallAware IDE) contains explanations of all the pre-defined variables, including the ones that the Native Engine uses (usually prefixed with NATIVE_).