3 replies to this topic

[JoeThompson]

Hi,

We currently use ISDev 7.02 and are trying to decide which is the better way to make the user interface:  The Standard or Basic project.  The problem is, I only know how to do Basic projects and my coworker is more comfortable with Standard because of previous work with InstallShield products.  I know the background can be turned off in the Standard and they will look similar but certain things like selecting directories and features look different in each.  So my question is, what way do most people here feel they will go?  Are there advantages of one way vs. the other?  We have to decide soon because we will each be working on a separate product that will be on the same CD in some cases and want them to look and feel the same.

Thank you for any thoughts on the subject,
Joe

[anthonyh]

We have decided to go with the Basic project . Mainly because it is a true MSI package and the user does not have to run setup.exe.  Also, there is less coding, ie. hopfully less chance of a problem.   With a Standard project everything is coded, and the user must run setup.exe so that the InstallShield environment is initialized.



Anthony

[Stefan Secker]

Hi,

from my point of view it depends whether you want to create
an independent MSI that will simply run just with the Windows
Installer, or if you can live with installing the InstallShield
engine and "polute" the target machine to run your installation.

As i had some experience in IS 5.5, and so coded nearly
everything, i also thought doing a basic MSI would be less
work, but i ran into many problems there (a lot of them
because i just didn't know the tips and "dirty" tricks).

Being able to code everything yourself in a standard
project will be the easier way to reach your goal sometimes.
My experience is that some "unusual" task in a basic project
quickly leads to creating a DLL to call a function or something
similar.

Anyhow, we go for basic solution!

HTH
   Stefan

[Irina]

Hi guys,
I work with MSI for our new product and with InstallShield 5.5 for our old product. We support both of them. You can do the same operation with both and when you have enough experience it doesn't matter what installer do you use. You can write custom actions on Install script in MSI, in this case the project looks like doing in InstallShield 5.5. MSI using has one problem, a customer machine should have MSI installed (I mean Windows installer service). It is a part of Windows 2000, but NT4 machines don't have the Windows Installer service by default.

Best regards,