Off The Wall Installers

[Maelstorm]

I've come across a new (to me) installer called Ghost Installer. The command line switches are as follows:

-s - silent mode

-r - repair

-c - add/remove

-u - uninstall

And according to the board that I got this from, any and all options can be disabled when the installer is built. Just great.

Fortunately, it seems that only WinPcap 3.0, which is a required component of Etheral, uses this installer. But, considering that there is a company behind this one, there's probably more software distributions out there that uses it.

I've also recently come across a FkWare installer. Still haven't been able to locate the switches for that one. Any ideas?

The major ones that I'm aware of are:

Windows Installer

Installer VISE

Inno Setup

InstallShield

WISE Installer

Some of the minor ones that I know about:

NSIS

Now a few one offs and custom jobs:

Ghost Installer

FkWare

Sonique (Custom?)

Sonique2 (Definately Custom)

Mozilla Installer

It's amazing how many different installers are out there considering how small the market is. If you are developing software, it doesn't take much of a stretch to also make your own installer too. The program gets run once, maybe twice, and that's it.

I guess it just depends on your build environment and installation requirements.

[keytotime]

The Mozilla Installer is a 7-Zip Installer.

[Maelstorm]

The Mozilla Installer is a 7-Zip Installer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the tip.

[Alanoll]

Ghost installer is used in other programs...

UltraEdit I think may be one. Not sure. I remember a HEX editor using it...

[robchurch]

With regard to picking an installer; developers of freeware are more concerned with ironing out bugs and problems than with how the software looks. I like Inno Setup myself, as it's a nice clean and professional system, and can be scripted almost beyond most commercial solutions.