Nov
10
Before I forget all about it, I figure I might as well post some informative links over an experiment I did a few weeks ago... My sister was having a problem installing some software on her computer that was made using some version of an InstallShield installer that was having serious incompatibility issues with her Windows system setup. I used LogMeIn Free to attempt to diagnose the problem and solve it, getting the software to install. I saw the error and had absolutely no idea how to solve it. The only similar problem that someone experienced (that I could find) was over a year old and had to do with a DreamWeaver install which only affected a few people and was fixed with a new version of the installer. I tried installing the software on my computer and it worked flawlessly.
In comes two packages to help with a solution (I think, she has yet to try it after all my research and work, haha): Sandboxie, and (of course) NSIS.
In comes two packages to help with a solution (I think, she has yet to try it after all my research and work, haha): Sandboxie, and (of course) NSIS.
I had already uninstalled the stupid software I had installed previously (and then thoroughly cleaned all the crap it left, such as registry keys, temp files/folders, etc...) and didn't want to install it again. I didn't want to have to deal with that hassle again, but I still needed to have two things: (1)the unpackaged program files, and (2)the registry entries that were created/modified during the install. Sandboxie is an application that will allow you to safely run any application in a virtual sandbox right on your own computer -- in other words, if you run something through the Sandbox, once you remove the sandbox (exit the application) any changes made to your system are automatically erased; moreso like they never occured in the first place...plus it comes with an ability to log any changes that would have been made to your system during the running of the application (BINGO). Oh yeah, and I extracted the sandboxed files and copied them to my local drive (outside the sandbox) so I could repackage them in my own install.
So, on to learning how to use a new scripting language that looks nothing like anything I'd used before....
I like cheating when it makes things easier. So, rather than spend a day or two to learn and understand the scripting language, then another day or two debugging possible problems, I started looking for automators or simple examples. I found some! I also found an awesome add-on that allows for really cool looking installation themes (check it out to see what I mean). I also found two possible automation options. I unfortunately only apparently saved one of them, so can only report back about that -- but it worked so well, who cares?! NSIS Quick Setup Script Generator is a Windows based simple GUI interface to automatically create an NSIS script file to generate our install. After finding this automation program, it took me about 3 minutes to create the installation package, and I also had a working script file to work from as an example if I ever wanted to update things (such as add specific registry entires, the icon for the setup script, and even more importantly, the UI theme that I found and discussed earlier). Cool, huh?
For the more inclined: there are also a few IDEs for use with creating scripts under the NSIS environment. The one I personally found to be the best overall option was HM NIS Editor; your mileage and tastes may vary (NSIS has their own editor), but that's just my two cents.
So, on to learning how to use a new scripting language that looks nothing like anything I'd used before....
I like cheating when it makes things easier. So, rather than spend a day or two to learn and understand the scripting language, then another day or two debugging possible problems, I started looking for automators or simple examples. I found some! I also found an awesome add-on that allows for really cool looking installation themes (check it out to see what I mean). I also found two possible automation options. I unfortunately only apparently saved one of them, so can only report back about that -- but it worked so well, who cares?! NSIS Quick Setup Script Generator is a Windows based simple GUI interface to automatically create an NSIS script file to generate our install. After finding this automation program, it took me about 3 minutes to create the installation package, and I also had a working script file to work from as an example if I ever wanted to update things (such as add specific registry entires, the icon for the setup script, and even more importantly, the UI theme that I found and discussed earlier). Cool, huh?
For the more inclined: there are also a few IDEs for use with creating scripts under the NSIS environment. The one I personally found to be the best overall option was HM NIS Editor; your mileage and tastes may vary (NSIS has their own editor), but that's just my two cents.
0 Trackbacks