Flexera has released its newest version of their Setup Authoring Software called “InstallShield” during my holidays last week. As a matter of fact this will be included in the next major release of the AdminStudio Suite.
- Windows 10 Ready — Confidently build applications that support Windows 10 Insider Preview.
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Integration — Integrate InstallShield 2015 with Visual Studio 2015 Preview to add project output groups to your installation and integrate your InstallShield project into your Visual Studio source control and solution build processes.
- Enhanced Support for SHA-256 Digital Signatures — Be prepared for Microsoft’s new signature requirements with support for SHA-256 certificates and digests.
- Automation Interface for Advanced UI and Suite/Advanced UI Projects — Support continuous integration practices and reduce manual editing by leveraging automation scripts to add files and features, change installation properties, and initiate builds for InstallShield MSI, InstallScript, Advanced UI and Suite/Advanced UI projects.
The full release log is actually a bit hidden from the public but can be obtained here: http://helpnet.installshield.com/installshield22helplib/releasenotes.htm
For me the more interesting changes are:
Ability to Access the Installer Session from PowerShell Scripts in Basic MSI and InstallScript MSI Installations
The PowerShell custom action support has been enhanced. It now includes support for several cmdlets that let you interact with the running Basic MSI or InstallScript MSI installation at run time. The cmdlets enable you to get and set Windows Installer properties, expand the value of formatted expressions, and write information to the log file.
With this revised implementation, you can use the Windows Installer property IS_CLR_VERSION to identify a semicolon-delimited list of .NET Framework versions that the custom action should attempt to load to run your PowerShell script.
This enhancement resolves issue IOA-000078121.
Seems like we are finally able to interact with the current windows installer session using PowerShell.
New Machine-Wide Setting for Removing Unused Components Automatically
The Files View tab on the Options dialog box in InstallShield has a new Clean up unused components check box. This check box lets you specify whether you want InstallShield to remove unused components from your project automatically.
When this check box is selected, you delete all of the files in a component, and that component is not required elsewhere, that component is deleted automatically.
This new check box is a machine-wide setting. This check box is cleared by default; therefore, unused components are not removed automatically by default.
This enhancement resolves issue IOA-000081240.
Also nice to have, however i do not like the automatic approach of it.
What are your thoughts about the new version? Are you satisfied? Let me know in the comments section!