InstallAnywhere 2017: What’s New Webinar Q & A

The webinar, What's New in InstallAnywhere 2017, highlights InstallAnywhere's the use of templates and reusable design themes and installer rules that improve developer productivity and control. Additional features enable an improved user installation experience and provide expanded support for installing databases and deploying Docker images.

It also provided a great Q&A session, which resulted in the important information below. Need more? Don’t forget the Flexera Community or you can contact us directly.

1. The WYSIWIG Advanced UI Designer offers a lot of design flexibility, but does that increase the size of the installer?
No, it should not change the size of the installer. You do have a lot more control over the graphics themselves, and bringing in your own fonts and colors won’t impact the size of the installer.

2. Is it possible to create multiple folders at the installation stage that can be used when creating applications in the future?
You can include Create Folder Actions in the Install Sequence to create a directory structure in the installation location that your target application can use. You can create as many directories as you would like.

3. What’s the process to create an installer that will set up a Windows Service that runs in the background? Is that something that can be easily done?
There is a Register Windows Service Action and a Start, Stop, Pause Windows Service Action. You can include those in the Install Sequence to install and start your Windows Service.

4. What are the new steps related to Docker support?
We included support for Docker with the InstallAnywhere 2015 release, which added the option to build both a traditional installer with the next-next-next wizard, and simultaneously also build a Docker image or Docker container, and connect those together at build time, so you get two different outputs depending on your project or your customer. InstallAnywhere 2017 has added a new feature where, at build time, not only do we create that image file, you can now publish that out to the Docker hub in the cloud or on the Internet, or to a local repository at your company. The use of Docker is a key part of many build ops at many organizations who are working in collaborative teams. You don’t want to just build the image and leave it on your device, you want to get it out to the additional teams, make sure it can be used by the next group of individuals who have to work with that file. It’s in the same views where you build and manage the rest of the Docker project file, under where you define and build settings. It requires the InstallAnywhere Premier for Virtualization and Cloud add-on, which is part of the free evaluation available on our website, so be sure to check it out. Or you can learn more by talking to your sales rep or channel partner.

5. How easy is it to upgrade from earlier versions to InstallAnywhere 2017?
We go out of our way to make that as simple as possible. When you open your existing projects from any InstallAnywhere version with the new InstallAnywhere 2017 for the first time, it will automatically upgrade that project to the latest format. It should be a seamless event. Once it has gone through that upgrade, it will no longer open with the prior version. So if you are collaborating with a larger team, make sure everyone upgrades at the same time. And it’s always a good idea to make a backup of your file before that happens.

InstallAnywhere is the leading multiplatform development solution for application producers who need to deliver a professional and consistent cross installation experience for physical, virtual and cloud environments. From a single project file and build environment, InstallAnywhere creates reliable installations for on-premises platforms – Windows, Linux, Apple OS X, Solaris, AIX , HP-UX, and IBM iSeries – and enables you to take existing and new software products to a virtual and cloud infrastructure and build Docker containers.  Get your free trial of InstallAnywhere or contact us for more information.

InstallShield® is the industry standard for development teams creating installers for Windows desktops, servers, and cloud platforms, and helps to prepare applications for emerging technologies like the Windows Store and Nano Server. Over 100,000 developers around the world trust InstallShield to develop EXE and MSI installers, create Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and Windows Server App (WSA) packages, and virtualize their applications with minimal scripting, coding, or rework. Get your free trial of InstallShield today or contact us for more information.