Delphi, installers and Windows 7

Question

As part of a general move to Windows 7 - where all applications should have an "installer experience", I need to create installers for all of our application suite. I have looked at InstallShield, but this seems extremely expensive for what it does. What install products could I look at?

The installers will need to be built unattended on our build machines, so there is a level of complexity above just being an installer builder.

Update:

I have looked at all of the suggestions and they look good. My plans involve pushing stuff up by SCCM (or something similar) to the end users. Would I need to have MSI support for that?

Answer 1

I think Inno Setup from Jordan Russell can do what you want. Oh, and it's free.

Answer 2

You might want to take a look at the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS).

The compilation of NSIS installer scripts can be integrated in your build system.

(You can even cross-compile your Windows installer on Linux, BSD or Mac OS X.)

Find out more at http://nsis.sourceforge.net/.

With NSIS you can build .exe installers (think setup.exe).

In case you want to build MSI packages, take a look at the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset.

More on this here: http://wix.sourceforge.net/

Answer 3

Installaware would be my recommendation

http://installaware.com/

Answer 4

I work on a desktop application built in Delphi and we use the Wise Installation Studio to build our installers. It seems to be robust enough to handle what you need, including the ability to create MSI packages. However, it isn't a free product.

http://www.wise.com/Wise/Products/Installations/WiseInstallationStudio.aspx

Answer 5

I use DeployMaster from Just Great Software since many years and am very happy with it.
It can be integrated in your build process.
Not free, but very reasonably priced.

Answer 6

MSI installers are ideal where you have corporate installations, and a good way to create an MSI is using WiX, an XML based system. However, the files you need are complex, so I use MSI Factory to create the installer which handles all the usual requirements, but which then outputs the WiX files which can be built and updated by my build scripting tool FinalBuilder. This way I get the benefit of the nice UI, and of the open files tool, so no lock-in.