Appendix D: How To: Inno Setup

Would you like to find a light-weight, easy-to-use, script-based installation program for deploying your VFP applications? Would you like it to support all 32-bit versions of Windows? Would you like it to be free? Look no further: Inno Setup is the answer.

About Inno Setup

Inno Setup is a simple yet powerful installer for Windows applications. A script-based tool, it is easy to learn and easy to use. Inno Setup supports all 32-bit versions of Windows, making it a viable solution for a wide range of deployment scenarios.

The name Inno Setup stands for ‚“Innovative Setup. ‚½ The program was written by Jordan Russell, who continues to support and enhance it today. Inno Setup version 1.0 was released in 1997, so this product has been around for a while. It has an active history of ongoing enhancements and improvements. ^[1] Judging by the popularity of Inno Setup and by the active support and development community that has grown up around it, this installer is likely to be around for a long time to come.

Inno Setup compiles setup scripts into a single EXE file you distribute to your end users. The end user simply runs SETUP.EXE to install your application. The installation runs as a professional-looking, wizard-style sequence of steps that is easy for the user to follow.

Besides simply copying files to the target computer, Inno Setup can also write registry entries, update INI files, register ActiveX components and other automation servers, create desktop and Start menu shortcuts, create file associations, and accomplish most of the other tasks you would expect from a full-featured installer. Inno Setup also provides a full uninstall capability.

Several people have written and published extensions and add-on tools for Inno Setup. These products enhance and extend the functionality of Inno Setup, and are also available for free. Among these tools is ISTool, which provides a GUI interface to Inno Setup scripts. Although written by other authors, these third-party tools are typically kept up to date as new versions of Inno Setup are released. It is therefore reasonable to expect they will continue to be kept up to date in the future, meaning you can use these add-on products with some assurance they will continue to stay current.

On The Web ‚  

You can find Inno Setup on the Web at http://www.innosetup.com , which redirects to http://www.jrsoftware.org . If you want to go directly to the download page, you can find it at http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php .

Is Inno Setup really free? Yes, it is really free, even for commercial use. Download the software, read the license, and see for yourself. Although no payment is required, the author does provide a link on his website for making a voluntary donation to help offset the cost of ongoing development and support. If you decide to use this installer, you will probably find it is worth several times the suggested donation. The source code is also available, and the license allows modifications and redistributions in both source and binary forms under certain restrictions. Again, read the license for complete information.

^[1] When I began writing this appendix in the summer of 2003, the current version of Inno Setup was 3.0.7. Version 4.0 was released to beta in June and came out of beta as version 4.0.6 on September 15, 2003. Since then there have been three more ‚point ‚ releases, and as of late October, 2003 the current version is 4.0.9.