Mohit Singh - Developing Software Installers: The Ultimate Guide to developing your own software installer through WinRAR

Developing Software Installers

Mohit Singh

Copyright 2016 All Rights Reserved

By- The Penguin Coders

www.penguincoders.net

First Edition- March 2016

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Edited By- Mohit Singh

INTRODUCTION

BEGINNING WITH WINRAR

WINRAR TABS

CREATING THE INSTALLER

CONGRATULATIONS PROCESS FINISHED

Softwares are wonderful, but without a software installer, they are no GOOD.

Softwares are what make up a computer work. Without softwares, an Operating System is just a useless piece of crap. So you need softwares for your computer to work efficiently and properly. And to install software, you need a software installer.

After making your software perfect by editing it till it shines, you probably need a software installer to pack up all the contents so that your software can be perfectly shipped. But making a software installer is not much fun. It requires coding and hard work.

This guide comes in handy, when you want to develop a software installer for your newly polished software. It does the task easy by telling you the secrets on making a perfect software installer, without need of any coding required.

This guide explains in detail on making your Professional software installer through WinRAR, which besides being powerful archiving software, can be used to develop your own software installers.

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Everyone must have seen softwares installed on their computers. The installation of softwares is different in different Operating Systems. It is a completely different system ranging in multiple ways from one OS to other. Before beginning with the ultimate guide, lets first learn how softwares are installed in different operating systems.

WINDOWS Operating System

In Windows, you can install software in 3 different ways which are described here in detail.

Software Installation through .EXE Installer

This is the most popular method for software installation in Windows. It involves a series of process where a user first downloads the softwares .exe installer through its official website or copies the installation file from a friends computer. Here, the software is installed through running the setup file, which generally asks you for the installation location, accepting its License Agreement, and other functionality offered by it. During the installation process, the installer usually asks for Administrator access, which we provide by clicking on the UAC prompt that appears after double clicking the installation file.

During installation of software, the installer does various tasks from creating and copying files, in the Program Files directory to writing Registry Values in the Windows Registry. It also does the task of creating icons and entries in Start menu. If specified, the software installer can force the program to run at Windows startup.

Software Installation through .MSI Installer

MSI or Microsoft Software Installer is a technology built in by Microsoft which enhances the process of software installation in Windows. It uses Microsoft Visual Basic and Install Shield to build .msi software installer packages. With this type of software installer, you can use the features of Windows exclusively and add many advanced features to your software installer, easily. It also offers features to have your own License Agreement, Installation location and all advanced features offered by .exe installers.

Software Installation through CD/DVD or Other Executable Media

In these types of software installers, the principle is same as that of an .exe or .msi software installers. Instead here, you need a media like CD/DVD. These software installers are loaded on a disc and when that disc is inserted in a computer, it uses the Auto Run feature provided by Windows, to automatically start the installation of the software present in the DVD.

To accomplish this task, the Software Installer DVD has an autorun.inf file present in its root directory which contains information to be executed when the device has been plugged into a computer.

After the start of the installer, the procedure for the software installation is same, as described in above cases. A CD/DVD can contain Software Installers of both types, i.e..exe installers and .msi installers.

ANDROID Operating System