Getting Started with InstallShield Developer and Windows Installer Setups [Paperback]

Bob Baker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 16, 2002

InstallShield Developer is the most powerful and flexible solution for creating today’s Windows Installer setups. And this book is your authoritative guide to this most critical step in the software release process: the installation.

InstallShield authority Bob Baker guides you through Developer’s integrated development environment and robust feature set. You’ll learn installation basics and then move on to solving many advanced installation challenges, complete with sample projects and InstallShield software on the included CD. You’ll see how InstallShield Developer leverages Microsoft’s Windows Installer technology as well as worldwide standard InstallScript™ from InstallShield to create the most powerful installation technology available today.

Get answers to your setup questions. Learn the issues you never realized were possible. All in the new book from Bob Baker and InstallShield Press: Getting Started with InstallShield Developer and Windows Installer Setups. Order today!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bob Baker (Schaumburg, IL) is the author of the the 2001 publication, The Official InstallShield for Windows Installer Developer's Guide. He joined InstallShield at the beginning of 1995 and has served as Program Manager for the InstallShield 3 product, Director of Product Support Services, and Technical Trainer focusing on tools that deal with the Windows Installer service. Bob holds a B.S. degree in engineering and an M.S. degree in computer science.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1000 pages
• Publisher: Installshield Software Corp (May 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971570809
• ISBN-13: 978-0971570801
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 7.1 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #774,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 50/50 --- great book and marketing nuisance in one, October 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Getting Started with InstallShield Developer and Windows Installer Setups (Paperback)

Considering that writing complex installs is not a trivial task these days and that you won't find much documentation on this subject out there, I think this is a great book to have! It provides quite a lot of technical insight into how UI and execute sequences are run, what processes are involved, where execution of your install is taking place at any given time, etc. No dount the author "knows his stuff" very well.

The reason I'm giving it only three stars is because the author spends too much time dwelling on InstallShield's proprietary scripting language called InstallScript. The whole reason we purchased InstallShield Developer for Windows Installer in our company was to get rid of their proprietary language and leverage Microsoft's Windows Installer. Even though they state that InstallScript was derived from C++, it's a bizzare mix of C++, Basic and Pascal!

If you really need to use InstallScript you'd be better off with the latest and greatest InstalShield professional instead. Lengthy discussions of InstallScript make this book a total nuisance and turns it into a marketing tool altogether. If you want to leverage powerful WSH and write custom actions in VBScript/JScript you'll find no information at all. I wish InstallShield people realized that using the scripting framework of Windows is so much better than training people on a propritary language.

Bottom line---this is a very useful book and essential for install developers, but you'll have to skip a lot of sections looking for information that really matters to you. Three stars for failing to adequately cover Microsoft Windows Installer technology.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A big disappointment, November 13, 2002

By 

Thomas W. Clement (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Getting Started with InstallShield Developer and Windows Installer Setups (Paperback)

I thought this would help me learn how to use InstallShield Developer. I read it cover to cover and learned almost nothing of use. Areas where I really needed help, like doing patches and upgrades were mentioned, so you might be mislead into thinking there'd be something there. In fact, no useful information is provided about that, unless you don't know what a patch is. Ok, a patch is an incremental upgrade to an existing installation. Now you don't need to buy the book. (You can send the 50 bucks to me if you'd like).

It was a waste of my companies money and my time.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not complete problem, September 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Getting Started with InstallShield Developer and Windows Installer Setups (Paperback)

This book, while it does contain all the essientials of InstallShield Developer, lacks a complete index, making it extremely difficult to look up what you want to know about.

It also is a beginners books and has very little about how to create an upgrade package.

The Table Of Contents is a poor replacement for a complete index.