1 reply to this topic

[Jamie]

I have used InstallShield 5.5 for several years now, and have converted many installs over to InstallShield 6.3. A small learning curve, but not too bad.

Now my company is interested in upgrading to InstallShield Developer 8 in order to make use of the MSI integration. We have purchased the software, but I am currently finding the differences between the versions to be HUGE!!

Since we have over 20 separate installs for our product line, I would like to take some training so that I can have a good knowledge base for rewriting the new installs (and be able to do it right the first time). I have been looking at the IS training but have some questions on the courses offered.

Has anyone taken "Learning InstallShield Developer 8"? If so, was it worth it? I am familiar with InstallScript, but it's the MSI side that confuses me. We'll always be creating InstallScript MSI projects, so I figured that the "Learning Windows Installer (MSI) Technology" course wouldn't have too much to offer me. Am I right in this assumption?

If anybody has taken any IS training recently, I would appreciate their opinion on the training courses.

Thanks,

Jamie

[luke_s]

If you are a beginner with Install Shield (using Windows installer) then i believe that you will greatly benefit from the Install Shield Training course. It covers a lot of the basics of the Windows Installer technologies, and how Install Shield ties these in.

I would also get a hold of the Windows Installer SDK and just start playing around creating installs, upgrades, etc. All of my knowledge was self taught by analysing verbose log files, and general trial and error.

Lastly, since you have about 20 products, I would start with the simple ones, make sure upgrades work etc, and then move onto your more comlicated setups because some mistakes made early are very hard to change later on in your setups.

This website is also very helpful so i would have a good look around and read about windows installer from here as well.

Luke