Wise for Visual Studio .NET

Another advantage of having a third-party tools ecosystem is competition. For instance, Wise for Visual Studio .NET is another installation program available for developing installers for .NET applications. It provides a set of similar features for developing installers , including support for Web applications.

Key highlights of Wise for Visual Studio .NET include the following:

• Debugging support for installations

• Support for installing Web applications

• Support for creating Automatic Updates functionality (using WiseUpdate client) for the application, where updates to the application can be checked and downloaded automatically from a Web site

• Customization of .NET features such as .NET Framework Security

• Support for Microsoft Systems Management Server

• Web-based deployment

• Support for configuring a SQL Server database during installation

• Support for configuring IIS Virtual Directories while installing Web applications

• Support for mobile devices including Pocket PC and Smartphones

• Support for creating and managing Windows services

• Support for installing MTS/COM+ applications

Wise for Visual Studio .NET (shown in Figure 6.7) is available in Professional and Enterprise editions. The Enterprise Edition adds features for distributed team-based development, including sharing files, components , and application information.

Figure 6.7. Using Wise for Visual Studio .NET to develop an installer for a Web-based application.

More information and an evaluation version of Wise for Visual Studio .NET is available at http://www.wise.com.