Power Tweaks (Deployment)

The Power Tweaks page allows you to control advanced setup switches. While these advanced setup switches have been available in InstallAware for quite some time, this page exposes them in one convenient location, together with pre-sets for quick tuning.

Some of these switches are stored in pre-defined variables. Others are stored in pre-defined compiler variables.

A few of the switches are stored in global project settings, and not in pre-defined variables or compiler variables: MSICODE_STATEMENT_IDS, REDUCE_MSI_FILE_COMPONENTS, and REDUCE_MSI_REGISTRY_COMPONENTS. While these names have been fashioned to sound like pre-defined variables or compiler variables, they are actually neither.

Mouse-over a feature, or click a setting, to receive an extended description of what the setting does and how it may be used to enhance your setups. If you would like to restore a setting to its default value, click the Restore button.

After you have finished making changes, click the Apply button to apply them to your project and main setup script; or click the Cancel button to discard these changes without applying them. If these buttons are not visible on your terminal due to low monitor resolution, simply switch to another page to be prompted to save or discard your changes. Changes made in this page are not saved until explicitly applied by using either the Apply button or the page switching method intended for lower resolution displays.

Global Settings

These settings apply to both Windows Installer and Native Engine setups built with InstallAware.

Native Engine Settings

These settings apply only to Native Engine setups built with InstallAware.

To create a new setup project that can use the Native Engine or Hybrid Installation Technology (both of the Native Engine and Windows Installer engines within the same setup), use the Native Setup project template.

To use the Native Engine or Hybrid Installation Technology in an existing setup project, open two instances of the InstallAware IDE (enabling it, if necessary, via the IDE Options window). Load your existing setup project in one, and create a new setup project using the Native Setup project template in the other. Copy-paste code from the template project into your existing project as necessary.

Windows Installer Settings

These settings apply only to Windows Installer setups built with InstallAware, with one exception:

The NO_MSI setting applies only to Native Engine setups built with InstallAware which are NOT based on Hybrid Installation Technology (setups which never use the Windows Installer engine, and are entirely powered by the Native Engine). For such setups, you may want to disable MSI file creation. This would both shorten setup build times, and reduce setup payload size.

Automatic Settings

To permit InstallAware to automatically optimize your setup switches for you, check the Use my preference emphasizing box, and move the slider towards either Performance or Integrity. A total of three automatic pre-sets are available, including Balanced which attempts to strike a best-of-both-worlds between the two other poles.

Scripting Details

The two-way integrated IDE emits or updates the underlying setup script every time the visual view is used. If you are using InstallAware scripting in your setups, the following information identifies the changes made by this visual page to your setup script.

Commands Used

This page emits the following types of scripting commands: Set Variable. Additionally, pre-defined compiler variables and global project settings are modified by this page.

Commands Required

This page does not require any scripting commands to be already present in your setup script.