ActiSetup is an advanced setup development environment for Windows Installer. It supports authoring MSI installation packages, merge modules, and patches. It allows you to create installation packages for your software products, with maximum ease of use and flexibility. With ActiSetup, you can quickly create installations with a single step-by-step Wizard, as well as directly edit the MSI tables for greater fine-tuning.
ActiSetup also includes an updater service, so you can deliver patches to users of your application reliably and efficiently. Finally, ActiSetup includes a setup bootstrapper, designed to simplify the process of installing prerequisites such as the .NET Framework.
Windows Installer Support
Windows Installer (MSI) is an engine that can perform complex software installations. Currently, a growing number of applications use Windows Installer as their installation engine. Not only is Windows Installer the Microsoft-endorsed method of performing installations on Windows operating systems, but also Windows Installer is highly flexible in its core design, allowing for very complex installations. Most new programs now use Windows Installer for installation.
Windows Installer works by reading MSI files and performing the actions configured inside these files. ActiSetup provides a way to create these MSI files easily, without you having to know the file format. Windows Installer supports several basic types of installation packages, including installations, merge modules, patches, and transforms. Each of these has its own special purpose. ActiSetup allows you to easily author, using the same interface, all of these installation types.
