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Upgrading Projects from InstallShield 2009 Express Edition or Earlier

InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition

The following information describes possible upgrade issues that may occur when you upgrade projects that were created with InstallShield 2009 Express Edition and earlier to InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition. It also alerts you to possible changes in behavior that you may notice between new InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition projects and projects that are upgraded from InstallShield 2009 Express Edition or earlier to InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition.

General Information about Upgrading Projects that Were Created in Earlier Versions of InstallShield Express Edition

If you use InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition to open a project that was created with an earlier version, InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition displays a message box that asks you if you want to convert the project to the new version. If you reply that you do want to convert it, InstallShield creates a backup copy of the project with a file extension such as .768 before converting it. Delete the .768 part from the original project's file name if you want to reopen the project in the earlier version of InstallShield. Note that you cannot open InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition projects in earlier versions of InstallShield Express Edition.

You can upgrade projects that were created with the following versions of InstallShield Express Edition to InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition: InstallShield 2009 Express Edition and earlier, InstallShield 12 Express Edition and earlier and InstallShield Express 5 and earlier. Note that projects that were created with InstallShield MultiPlatform or InstallShield Universal cannot be upgraded to InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition.

Installing More than One Edition of InstallShield

Only one edition of InstallShield 2010—Premier, Professional, or Express—can be installed on a system at a time. Previously, it was possible to install the Express edition on the same system that had the Premier or Professional edition of the same InstallShield version.

Change to the List of Supported Operating Systems for Running InstallShield

The minimum operating system requirement for systems that run InstallShield (the authoring environment) is now Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. Previously, the minimum operating system requirement was Windows 2000 SP3.

Changes that Affect All Projects (New and Upgraded Projects)

This section describes changes that affect both new projects and projects that are upgraded from earlier versions of InstallShield.

Setup.exe No Longer Runs on Windows 9x, Windows NT 4, or Windows Me Systems

Setup.exe installations that are created in InstallShield can no longer be run on Windows 9x, Windows NT 4, or Windows Me. If an end user tries to launch Setup.exe on a Windows 9x or Windows Me system, Windows displays a message box with the following error: "The FullSetup.exePathAndFileName file expects a newer version of Windows. Upgrade your Windows version." On Windows NT 4 systems, Windows displays a message box with the following error: "FullSetup.exePathAndFileName is not a valid Windows NT application."

InstallShield no longer enables you to select these legacy operating systems when you are creating conditions for a feature or a custom action, or when you are configuring system hardware requirements in the Requirements view. If you upgrade a project that was created in InstallShield 2009 Express Edition or earlier to InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition, and if the earlier project had conditions or requirements for only these legacy operating systems, InstallShield replaces the legacy operating system options with the Any OS Version option.

Windows Installer 1.x Redistributables Are No Longer Available

InstallShield no longer includes Windows Installer 1.x redistributables, since they target only legacy versions of Windows that are no longer supported. Previously, it was possible to add Windows Installer 1.x redistributables to a project through the Releases view.

Redistributable for VBScript Runtime Files Is No Longer Available

InstallShield no longer includes the InstallShield object for VBScript Runtime Files. This redistributable targets only legacy versions of Windows that are no longer supported.

QuickPatch Creation

InstallShield now uses the Windows Installer 4.5 patching technology to create QuickPatch releases. This change is reported for informational purposes.

Changes for the Redistributables View

The Redistributables view has a new toolbar and group box area that provide robust search and organizational functionality. Use the new Show Details button in this view to show or hide the details pane for the selected redistributable in this view. The details pane provides information such as which files a redistributable installs. The Show Details button replaces the Show Details and Hide Details links that were previously available in the upper-right corner of this view.

The new group box area is below the new toolbar in the Redistributables view. You can drag and drop column headings onto this group box area to organize the list of redistributables in a hierarchical format. If you want InstallShield to separate all of the redistributables in the view into two groups—one whose check box is selected and one whose check box is cleared—drag the check box column to the group box area. This enables you to easily identify all of the redistributables that are included in your project. The result is similar to the behavior that previously occurred if you right-clicked any redistributable and then clicked Show Only Selected Items. Note that the Show Only Selected Items command is no longer available in the Redistributables view.

For more information, see Working with the Group Box Area in Various Views.

Changes that Affect New Projects but Not Upgraded Projects

This section describes changes to InstallShield that may affect new projects but not projects that are upgraded from earlier versions. Note that you may need to make manual changes to upgraded projects.

Changes to Support for Securing Permissions for Files, Folders, and Registry Keys

The General Information view has a new Locked-Down Permissions setting that lets you specify whether you want to use the new custom InstallShield handling or the traditional Windows Installer handling for all new permissions that you set for files, folders, and registry keys in your project. The new custom InstallShield handling option offers several advantages over the traditional Windows Installer handling option.

In all new projects, the default value for this setting is the custom InstallShield handling option. If you upgrade a project from InstallShield 2009 Express Edition or earlier to InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition, the traditional Windows Installer handling option is the default value of this setting.

This new setting is available in Express projects.

For more information, see the following:

Changes to the Ready to Install Dialog for Beta Windows Installer 5 Support of Per-User Installations

The Show All Users Option setting in the Dialogs view now has support for the MSIINSTALLPERUSER property that is available with the beta of Windows Installer 5. Use this setting to specify whether you want to give end users the option of installing your product for all users or for only the current user. Depending on the value that you select for this setting, the Ready to Install dialog may include buttons that let end users specify how they want to install the product; the buttons are displayed if the installation is run on a system that has Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

The Show All Users Option setting is now available when you select the main Dialogs node in the Dialogs view. Previously, this setting was available if you selected the Customer Information dialog in this view.

If you create a new Express project in InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition, the default value for the Show All Users Option setting is No. If you upgrade a project from InstallShield 2009 Express Edition or earlier to InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition, the value is set as follows:

You can modify the value as needed.

Trialware Support

The only edition of InstallShield that includes the Trialware view is the Premier edition. This edition lets you create the Try and Die type of trialware. InstallShield no longer includes support for creating the Try and Buy/Product Activation type of trialware.

Compact Projects

InstallShield no longer enables you to create new Compact projects. Note that if you created a Compact project in InstallShield 2009 Express Edition or earlier, you can upgrade it to InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition, and then make changes to it and build it. You can also use InstallShield 2012 Spring Express Edition to convert the Compact project to an Express project.

Visual Studio Integration

Microsoft Visual Studio can be integrated with only one version of InstallShield Express Edition at a time. The last version of InstallShield that is installed or repaired on a system is the one that is used for Visual Studio integration.

See Also

What's New in InstallShield 2010 Express Edition

Upgrading from Earlier Versions of InstallShield