10 Best Windows Apps for Installation Tools

Advanced Installer Professional

Advanced Installer Professional is a Windows Installer authoring tool that enables developers and system administrators to easily build reliable MSI packages. Advanced Installer Professional is a useful tool for administrators and developers which allows them to create reliable MSI packages. It is a very complex technology mastering it on your own takes months of hard work. It creates a high-level abstraction on top of the underlying technology. With a clean, simple user interface, each operation is logical and intuitive. Everything is done in the user interface, without complicated scripts to learn or arcane database tables to edit.

Advanced Installer for Java

Advanced Installer For Java is a Windows Installer authoring tool with built-in support for Java applications, integrating them fully into the Windows OS and making them look and feel just like a native application.

Using the standard Windows Installer technology, Advanced Installer For Java is able to provide the best Windows integration for your Java applications. It ensures the smallest possible footprint by producing zero-overhead install packages which contain only native Windows Installer data with no additional run time requirements. Advanced Installer also provides a native launcher for your Java applications. Through this launcher, your users will see and use your Java programs just like regular Windows native executable files. The native launcher provides a fast and friendly start-up process for your Java applications.

Advanced Installer For Java is built on standard open formats. The project files are saved as XML files for easy integration with source control systems.

EMCO MSI Package Builder Professional

With EMCO MSI Package Builder Professional, that can be later installed remotely with the use of Remote Installer. One of the most important features of the MSI Package Builder is the ability to monitor at real time all file system and registry changes, performed by application and use monitoring results to create MSI. You can create MSI package, which performs same actions as any existing installation or application, in few minutes without any programming using just simple wizard.

The Professional edition can repackage existing installation into MSI format, customize MSI package, and convert any activity into installation.

InstallAware NX

Set up 64-bit and 32-bit systems with the same installer. Detect and support ia64 and x64 systems including Itanium, AMD64, and EM64T. Only InstallAware allows you to ship a single hybrid MSI for both 32-bit and 64-bit customers. Key features of this tool are as follows:

First MSI Builder to Support Windows 8.
InstallAware is the only installer with a built-in Aero Glass setup themes that fully complies with the new Aero Wizard specifications. InstallAware is the only installer that can directly pin shortcuts to the Microsoft Windows Taskbar and unpin them from the Windows 8 Start Screen.

One-click patching
Select your old and new setups, click Build Patch, and InstallAware automatically generates a native MSP-file that is packaged using advanced compression.

Refined user interface
Deliver setups that display the latest visual themes. 17 unique dialog themes, non-rectangular setup windows, plus Flash and HTML billboards, make your setups more interesting and more interactive.

WebAware Installation Technology
Reduce download size by removing technology dependencies (such as the .NET Framework) or rarely used features from your main setup file. The main setup will download them seamlessly from the web as needed. Files required by the minimum configuration are included in the main package, which installs without a Web connection.

Extend setups with custom programs
Run any program as part of your setup, without requiring a particular program location or having to install the program together with your setup. Run before/after your install/uninstall, or even from the finish dialog.

Five minutes to an installer
Build setups in minutes using wizards, templates, and samples. Then make refinements using InstallAware's intuitive task-based views.

Java installation support
Build Java application installations, with support for preinstalling Java Virtual Machines and runtime environments on Microsoft Windows systems. Complete project sample included.

EMCO MSI Package Builder Starter Edition

With MSI Package Builder you can create MSI packages, that can be later installed remotely with the use of Remote Installer. EMCO MSI Package Builder has the ability to monitor at real time all file system and registry changes, performed by the application and use monitoring results to create MSI. You can create MSI package, which performs the same actions as any existing installation or application, in a few minutes without any programming using just a simple wizard.

Nullsoft Scriptable Install System Portable

Nullsoft Scriptable Install System Portable is a professional open-source system to create standard Windows installers (as well as our launchers) packaged as a portable app so you can create installers and launchers anywhere.

Features includes Small overhead size, Compatible with all major Windows versions, and Unique compression methods.

WiX Toolset

WiX Toolset builds Windows installation packages from XML source code. The toolset supports a command line environment that developers may integrate into their build processes to build MSI and MSM setup packages. The WiX toolset CodePlex project stores the stable releases and Mercurial repository.

Nullsoft Scriptable Install System

Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) is a professional open-source tool for the development of Windows installers. It is designed to be as small and flexible as possible and is therefore highly suitable for Internet distribution.

An installer is not only the first experience of a user with your product, many software problems can also be solved by providing reliable installation tools. NSIS allows you to create stable, quick, and user-friendly installers that are capable of installing, uninstalling, setting system settings, and extracting files. With the NSIS scripting language, you can implement any custom logic you want.

EMCO MSI Package Builder Enterprise

WIth EMCO MSI Package Builder Enterprise, you can create a set of MSI packages for applications that you usually install on users' PCs. and enables you to install such applications in an automatic mode on any number of computers in the network directly from your workplace - and it only takes a few seconds. It will automatically create an MSI package that will have the same functions as the original installation and contain the data (options, paths, keys) entered during the installation process. Thus, the MSI package installation will be identical to the original manual installation. MSI package installation does not require user interaction; hence it can be performed in an automatic mode using GPO Active Directory or EMCO Remote Installer.

The Enterprise edition can create or delete a user or system environment variable, create, delete or manage service. Set or change service state, start options, arguments, execution account and dependencies, and update options for environment variables.

Inno Setup Compiler

Inno Setup is a free, feature-packed installation builder. The application's features include a Windows 2000-style wizard interface; the ability to create a single EXE for easy online distribution; support for disk spanning; and full uninstall capabilities. The program also includes customizable setup types, integrated LZMA file compression, support for installing shared files and OCXs, and the creation of Start menu icons, INI entries, and registry entries. Full Delphi source code is available on the author's Web site.