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windows-installerinno-setup
Tim Long
Tim Long

Reputation: 13778

does inno setup bypass Windows installer?

I have the impression that Inno Setup completely bypasses Windows Installer. Can anyone confirm or refute that notion?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 947

Answers (2)

SirDarius
SirDarius

Reputation: 42899

Inno Setup, as well as NSIS, are custom installer compilers that are completely unrelated to Windows Installer.

They use standard Windows Registry keys such as HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ in order to make the installed programs visible in the Add/Remove programs dialog (recently renamed Programs and Features).

The main difference between Inno Setup / NSIS and Windows installer based compilers like the Wix toolset, is that the formers are entirely autonomous, whereas the later depend on the installation of the Windows Installer runtime on the machine where the setup is running.

This makes a difference for very old systems mainly, since Windows Installer has been integrated to Windows since XP.

The fact that InnoSetup includes its complete runtime, based on a pascal interpreter (RemObjects Pascal Script) means that there is some overhead in the size of generated installers, in the order of 200 KB approximatively, so in theory, MSI installers can potentially be smaller. Interestingly enough, NSIS has a very optimized custom runtime that makes installers smaller than Inno's.

Upvotes: 1

Christopher Painter
Christopher Painter

Reputation: 55581

Confirm. Inno Setup is a custom procedural scripting language and doesn't leverage the benefits of Windows Installer at all.

It's in the FAQ:

Will it support Windows Installer in the future?

At the present time, I do not have plans for a Windows Installer edition of Inno Setup. "Supporting" Windows Installer would likely involve a near-complete rewrite of the program - something I don't have the time or interest to do.

Upvotes: 6

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