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FEATURE
Windows Installing
Using Inno Setup to Create a Windows Installer App
Issue: 11.2 (March/April 2013)
Author: Marc Zeedar
Author Bio: Marc taught himself programming in high school when he bought his first computer but had no money for software. He's had fun learning ever since.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 22,032
Starting Page Number: 30
Article Number: 12106
Resource File(s):
12106 project.zip Updated: 2013-03-04 13:32:23
Related Web Link(s):
http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php
http://www.jrsoftware.org/ishelp/
http://www.rsdeveloper.com/
http://s.sudre.free.fr/Software/Iceberg.html
http://www.araelium.com/dmgcanvas/
Excerpt of article text...
Those of you new to Real Studio may not remember when it used to create a single
.exe
binary for Windows. Now, of course, Real Studio generates an.exe
along with a folder of.dll
library files (see Figure 1), which is a little off-putting to us Mac people.Technically, similar files are included on the Mac side, but Mac apps are a "bundle" which appear as a single, double-clickable file to the user (see Figure 2).
In the old days, using an Installer application for Windows apps was
recommended but not strictly required: after all, when your app could be a single.exe
, installing it was not very complicated. Though, even then it was a good idea as Windows users expect an installer and are suspicious of programs that don't have one. Many of us Mac users didn't bother. For some of us, the Windows market wasn't a real priority and we were so used to not needing a complicated installer on the Mac side that having to have one for Windows seemed like a real drag.But, throw in a folder of complicated-looking
.dll
files, and you're asking a great deal of your users. If they don't copy things into the right places, your app won't run, so these days having a Windows installer for your Windows program is pretty much mandatory.What's an Installer?
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