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Setup Specialist
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Forum:
Visual FoxPro
Category:
Third party products
Miscellaneous
Thread ID:
00159774
Message ID:
00159983
Views:
25
Setup Specialist does follow the Win 95 standards for uninstalling. You can also specify files that should not be uninstalled and files that are shared (that is, they shouldn't be uninstalled by other applications if your application is still installed).

It also allows you to specify files that shouldn't be compressed, display billboards while your program is installing, run programs before and after setup, and lots of other stuff. Pretty nice. Probably not as extensive as Installshield, but much cheaper and very easy to learn.

>I don't know about SS, but there are one or two things I would look at if I were trying out a cheap intaller. Does it register your application properly so that it can be removed from Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs? That is one essential thing the vfp setup wizard doesn't do, which by itself makes it unacceptable for a professional installation. If the software is very specialized, has no competition, and a very small client base, the vendor can get away with some half-assed shortcuts. That's particularly true if the clients are old scientists, who don't care about having the latest thing and never have any money anyway.
>
>I squint and furrow my eyebrows at cheap installers because the last time I looked at them was in the bad old win3.1 days when many people had no idea how a windows-based installer should work but were still creating them. Many of them were cheap shareware. Even PC-Install, the next most popular after Install Shield, was buggy and crude a couple of years ago. It used its own compression. It couldn't compress files and span disks in one step the way ol' PKZip has always done. 20/20 Software, makers of PC-Install, was slow to adapt to Win95, as I recall. PC-Install is probably much better now, and might be worth a look.
>
>Since the name is Tripsoft, are your customers Travel Agents? Some of your more detailed questions gave me some idea of what the software does, but I'm not sure. My brother is a travel agent. I wonder what comparable programs he uses.
>
>I'm always more cagey about what my data is, since I work for a defense contractor. I always call my tables "things", "documents", "locations", not saying what they really are.
>
>>Michelle,
>>
>>Since this has gotten completely off-track I thought I would try to answer your original question. I've found that creating a setup with the VFP setup wizard is the easiest way to find out what you need to install. Look in the setup.inf it creates. You can double-click a file in Setup Specialist to tell it where to install it (app dir, win dir, win sys dir, etc). This is also where you can tell it to register an OCX or DLL.
>>
>>I think Setup Specialist is a good deal. It probably can't do everything Installshield can do, but if you just need some basic setup cabability it's much better than the VFP setup wizard.
>>
>>It sounds like part of the reason your employer is reluctant to spend money to save your time is that he's underpaying you. Maybe it's time to look for a new job?
>>
>>>Has anybody used this with VFP? I'm wondering how I get it to setup the stuff VFP needs. I also need to install 2 active-x controls.
>>>
>>>Using this isn't set in stone. If it's a bad product, please let me know. Or tell me if there's something better that's as cheap. I picked it because I didn't like the VFP one and InstallShield is too expensive. We haven't bought it yet, though, so my options are still open.
>>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>
>>>-Michelle
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