CODEWITHSUNDEEP
installationnsis
levhita
levhita

Reputation: 2171

How to create an installer out of an installer?

I have an old legacy application around for which I only have the installer. it doesn't do anything more than uncompress and register itself and his library's.

As i don't have the source-code it gives me a lot of headaches in maintenance problems. In some particular computers (Acer Aspire One with Windows) just do not run.

I would like to extract the files and re-create this installer with NSIS. Is this possible or I'm nuts?

The original installer has been created with Ghost Installer Studio.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 569

Answers (4)

Bob Kelly
Bob Kelly

Reputation: 19

This is typically the job of Repackaging Software. There are a few ways such tools work but typically it is by taking a look at a system before and after you install it on a clean system and building a custom installer from the detected changes. This is normally done to generate a customized installation and/or one that can be automated in its deployment. I'm not aware of one that generates an NSIS package, the standard format today is MSI (Windows Installer).

If you have the original installer any repackager will do, but even without the original setup program you can do as some of the others here suggest and monitor the use of the application for its requirements. The two most popular repackaging tools are InstallShield AdminStudio and Wise Package Studio. The feature may also be part of a setup authoring solution, so check with your in-house developers if you can.

A full list of repackaging tools can be found here at AppDeploy.com

One free repackaging tool available for creating Windows Installer setups from another [legacy] setup tool (with which I must divulge I'm involved) is the AppDeploy Repackager. Another free repackager is WinINSTALL LE.

Upvotes: 0

Anthony Williams
Anthony Williams

Reputation: 68691

One option is to find a machine that it does run on, and then install some "install guard" software (often called things like Acme Uninstaller). Use this to track what actually gets installed and then copy the relevant files and write your own.

It looks like a lot of hassle to me, and you may be on thin ice with regards to the licence.

Upvotes: 3

wprl
wprl

Reputation: 25437

You could try using a program that monitors new files being installed and then get the files that were installed from their respective paths.

For instance, I found this in about 10 seconds with Google, there are more programs like it, but I am inexperienced with those available for Windows.

Upvotes: 2

Nick
Nick

Reputation: 13444

If it uses a MSI file, you can use Orca or SuperOrca to get at the stuff packed inside.

Upvotes: 0

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