Overview of Windows Installer Properties

InstallShield 2015

The built-in InstallShield properties are outlined in the Windows Installer Property Reference.

Property Types

There are four general types of Windows Installer properties:

Public
Private
Restricted public
Required

Note: Some of these categories overlap. For example, the ProductCode property is a required private property.

Public Properties

Public properties have names that contain only uppercase letters. For example, INSTALLDIR is a public property. Public properties can be specified at the command line used to launch the installation or chosen by using an authored user interface. If you are creating your own properties, use all uppercase letters if you want end users to have access to these properties.

In order to allow the end user or administrator to change the destination via the user interface or from the command line, the Directory Identifier for the component’s destination must be a public property.

Note: Only public properties have their values preserved from an installation’s user interface to the point where the installation is changing the target system. If you set the value of a property in a dialog box displayed to the end user, use a public property (for example, MY_PUBLIC_PROPERTY) if you want its value written to a file or to the registry.

Private Properties

Private properties have at least one lowercase letter in their name and cannot be changed from the user interface. For example, ProgramFilesFolder is a private property. End users have no control over the values of private properties, as they cannot be set from the command line.

Restricted Public Properties

Restricted public properties allow network administrators to define public properties that can be changed only by a system administrator. This way, the administrator can change settings quickly without having to worry that other users on the network may tamper with the setup. Refer to Specifying that a Public Property Should Be a Restricted Public Property for more information.

Required Properties

The Windows Installer service relies on five properties that are required in every Windows Installer setup. By default, these properties are included in every installation you create using InstallShield. If you delete any of the following properties from your project, you need to reinsert them for your installation to function correctly.

ProductCode
ProductLanguage
Manufacturer
ProductVersion
ProductName

Conditions

Many properties are not set until the installation is launched. These properties are populated with information from the target system. For example, the VersionNT property is not set until the installation is launched. This property is set to the version of Windows that the target machine is running, if the operating system is a Windows NT–based system. For example, the value of VersionNT is 600 on a Windows Vista system.

Properties set at run time can be used to create conditional installations. If you want your product to be installed only on Windows Vista, you can use conditional logic to check the end user’s system, and install the product if all conditions are met.

See Also