> Actually I think you can upgrade to ISX now for as little as $199.

True, although in the past the InstallShield Express Limited Edition that comes with VFP did not qualify for the upgrade price. If you're really interested in upgrading it wouldn't hurt to call the InstallShield sales department and ask, though.

> Even if they were giving it away, I don't want a product that requires
> a lot of finicky version number changing etc. to get it to operate.

It's admittedly complicated, but it's important to recognize that these requirements are imposed by the Windows Installer technology itself, not by a particular product such as InstallShield.

> My first concern is that it requires the removal of the previous upgrade
> before it will let you apply a new upgrade.

This is a common misperception but it is not true. You can build updates, upgrades, and patches that do not require removing the previous version of your application.

> My second concern is the difficulties of adding new files to an upgrade.
> Suppose I add a new Report Form to the Upgrade. With the VFP installer,
> I could just save the new Report Form on the fly to the upgrade folder
> for the application. With ISE, I have to open ISE and click on Files and
> navigate to the report form files and drag them to the bottom of the screen.
> If they simply has a "select all" feature this might help.

ISE can add the entire contents of a folder to your setup, which allows you to add new files to a setup by simply placing them in that folder. Look up 'Dynamic File Linking' in the InstallShield Help file.

> I think I will take a good look at Inno Setup (http://www.jrsoftware.org)
> before making a decison on Install Shield.

You'll probably find Inno Setup easy to understand and work with.