Learning to make an installer

Question

I have to create an installer for our program and don't really know where to begin. It's not so much the technology (NSIS tutorials seem to be pretty good at explaining how to do things if you already know what you need to do) as the steps. So I guess I'm after something like "the basic steps for installing a program".

Answer 1

Installer is nothing more than a program that copies sets of files to some folders and create an entry in Add/Remove Application, Start menu, etc. At least that's the simplest case. If you have more steps like configuring ini files, validating license key, creating SQL Server database, etc, you have to know the exact deployment steps required for your application. Once you write up the steps, you need to figure how to implement them using your choice of installer creating tools. The feature could be there out of the box, or you might need to write some script or even supply command line app.

The best way to learn it is to get your hands dirty and make some installers using installer creating tools like Wix, NSIS, Inno Setup, etc.