Inno Setup is a free installer for Windows programs. First introduced in 1997, Inno Setup today rivals and even surpasses many commercial installers in feature set and stability.
Key features:
- Support for all versions of Windows in use today: Vista, XP, 2008, 2003, 2000, Me, 98, 95, and NT 4.0. (No service packs are required.)
- Extensive support for installation of 64-bit applications on the 64-bit editions of Windows. Both the x64 and Itanium architectures are supported. (On the Itanium architecture, Service Pack 1 or later is required on Windows Server 2003 to install in 64-bit mode.)
- Supports creation of a single EXE to install your program for easy online distribution. Disk spanning is also supported.
- Standard Windows 2000/XP-style wizard interface.
- Customizable setup types, e.g. Full, Minimal, Custom.
- Complete uninstall capabilities.
- Installation of files: Includes integrated support for "deflate", bzip2, and 7-Zip LZMA file compression. The installer has the ability to compare file version info, replace in-use files, use shared file counting, register DLL/OCX's and type libraries, and install fonts.
- Creation of shortcuts anywhere, including in the Start Menu and on the desktop.
- Creation of registry and .INI entries.
- Integrated Pascal scripting engine.
- Support for multilingual installs.
- Support for passworded and encrypted installs.
- Silent install and uninstall.
- Full source code is available (Borland Delphi 2.0-5.0).
- /LOG: Now logs INI entries. Also improved logging of icon entries.
- Added new [Setup] section directive: Output, which defaults to yes. If set to no the Setup Compiler will only check the script for errors and skip creating setup files.
- Console-mode compiler (ISCC) changes:
> Added new command line parameters /DO and /EO. These can be used to disable or enable output, overriding the Output directive.
> Added new command line parameter /Qp. Can be used to enable quiet compile while still displaying progress.
> ISCC now automatically specifies any Sign Tools configured using the IDE, eliminating the need to specify these using the /S command line parameter.
- Pascal Scripting changes:
> Added new function CurrentSourceFileName, which returns the source file name of the [Files] entry that is currently being processed. The returned name may include constants. Note: Do not attempt to call this function from outside a Check, BeforeInstall or AfterInstall event function belonging to a [Files] entry with the external flag.
> The already-existing StrToFloat and FloatToStr functions are now documented.
> Strings and numbers are now highlighted.
> Unicode Inno Setup: Added new class TStringStream.
- Inno Setup Preprocessor (ISPP) changes:
> Added function DeleteFileNow.
> Added 64-bit support to function ReadReg.
- Added official Scottish Gaelic and Turkish translations.
- Fix: [Setup] section directive UsePreviousLanguage was not working when Setup was running in 64-bit mode.
- Unicode [Code] based on RemObjects Pascal Script Git commit 97eefc260b41ba51328d95b4ed43669f38655720.
- Various documentation improvements.
