Upgrading from Other InstallShield Editions

InstallShield is available in three different editions: Premier, Professional, and Express. The Premier edition includes features that are not available in the Professional and Express editions. The Professional edition also includes features that are not available in the Express edition.

Some of the features that are available in the Premier edition but not the Professional or Express editions include:

Multilingual installations—Create a single installation that displays end-user text in multiple languages and can handle conditional installation of language-specific files. Change dialogs and messages to any one of 34 additional languages using pre-translated strings.

Project

Note that support for two of those languages—Arabic (Saudi Arabia) and Hebrew—is available in only Basic MSI and Merge Module projects.

Arabic (Saudi Arabia) and Hebrew Language Support—InstallShield Premier Edition includes support for Arabic (Saudi Arabia) and Hebrew languages, which are written and read from right to left. All of the default end-user dialog strings are available in these languages.

Since these languages are read from right to left, the Premier edition also includes support for mirroring Arabic and Hebrew dialogs; that is, InstallShield uses a right-to-left layout for Arabic and Hebrew dialogs. Thus, for example, buttons that are on the right side of dialogs in English and other left-to-right languages are moved to the left side of right-to-left-language dialogs.

Standalone Build—Use this module to maintain a clean build system by using the part of InstallShield that compiles the installations, plus any redistributables that you want to include.

Extra licenses for InstallShield MSI tools—InstallShield includes several tools: InstallShield MSI Diff, InstallShield MSI Query, InstallShield MSI Sleuth, and InstallShield MSI Grep. You can use these tools to troubleshoot issues with Windows Installer packages. InstallShield Premier Edition includes a separate installation and extra licenses that let you install just the InstallShield MSI tools, without InstallShield, on separate machines. For specific terms, see the End-User License Agreement for the InstallShield MSI tools.

Repackager project conversion tool—Installations created for the Windows Installer service dramatically differ from traditional installations, making it impossible to reuse legacy installations without a repackaging tool. Repackager assists you by capturing the data placed on your system during installation and converting it into a Windows Installer package, which you can then customize and distribute according to your organization’s needs.

InstallShield Collaboration—InstallShield Premier Edition includes a five-pack of licenses for InstallShield Collaboration for Visual Studio.

Network repository—A network repository is a collection of installation elements that multiple installation authors can access and reuse in their projects as needed. A network repository fosters collaboration among installation authors; it is stored on a network.

InstallShield Best Practice Suite—InstallShield includes a set of validators called the InstallShield Best Practice Suite. The InstallShield Best Practice (ISBP) validators in this suite alert you if your installation violates best-practice guidelines.

Additional Dialog Themes—Several dialog themes are available only in the Premier edition of InstallShield.

Some of the features that are available in the Premier and Professional editions but not in the Express edition include:

Dialog Editor—The Dialog Editor enables you to modify the layout of existing end-user dialogs or create new custom dialogs. Import and export dialogs to share them across projects. Construct different dialogs for each language supported in the project.

InstallShield MSI tools—The Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield includes several tools: InstallShield MSI Diff, InstallShield MSI Query, InstallShield MSI Sleuth, and InstallShield MSI Grep. You can use these tools to troubleshoot issues with Windows Installer packages.

Automation interface—Use script to add new files, add or delete features, change the product name and upgrade code, change release settings, change summary information stream items, change release flags, change any property, initiate the build process, and more.

Release customization—Define which project segments to compress, which features to place on which disk, and which languages to include. Choose to filter application data based on language to support localization efforts.

Source code control integration—Simplify the process of checking projects in and out of your source code control system and save space when differencing projects. The SCC integration in the Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield supports integration with various source code control systems.

Project validation—Use standard cub files to validate both full projects and merge modules. With the Best Practices Wizard, receive notification of deviations from setup guidelines and recommendations for changes.

Patch creation—In addition to enabling you to create QuickPatch projects, the Premier and Professional editions let you create standard patches that contain updates to a previous installation.

Manage multiple product versions—Build versions such as Evaluation, Debug, Standard, and Advanced—from a single project. Allow specific features to be chosen for inclusion in a release through user-defined flags.

Support for InstallScript—The Premier and Professional editions of InstallShield include support for InstallScript, a simple but powerful programming language. You can add InstallScript custom actions to Windows Installer–based installations or create InstallScript projects, which use the InstallScript engine instead of the Windows Installer engine to control the entire installation.

Merge module authoring and editing—Package pieces of a project for reuse across application installations. Reuse those you create or any of the ones included in the product. Edit and open modules for greater customization.

Project templates—Create project templates that contain all of the default settings and design elements that you want to use as a starting point when you create an installation project or merge module project.

ClickOnce support—The Premier and Professional editions include a ClickOnce Deployment project type, which provides a lightweight application deployment mechanism that is easy to use. The new ClickOnce Assistant guides you through the project creation process, providing pertinent information along the way.

Device driver support—Device driver support in the Premier and Professional editions simplifies the process of installing device drivers from installation using the Driver Installation Frameworks for Applications (DIFxApp) from Microsoft.

SQL support—Connect to SQL servers, import database schema and data, associate SQL scripts with features, and more with SQL support.

XML support—Use the XML File Changes view to specify how you want to edit one or more XML files on target systems.

64-bit support—Add 64-bit support to your installations.

InstallShield Prerequisite Editor—Use this tool to create new InstallShield prerequisites and modify existing ones.

For additional details about the features included with each edition, visit the Acresso Web site.

To learn about upgrading from one edition to another, see the appropriate topic: