Inno Setup

Inno Setup
	Screenshot of the Inno Setup IDE running on Windows 7
Developer(s)	Jordan Russell’s Software
Initial release	1997; 27 years ago
Stable release	6.3.3 / July 12, 2024; 3 months ago
Repository	github.com/jrsoftware/issrc ;
Written in	Delphi, Pascal
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Type	Setup creator
License	Inno Setup License
Website	jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

Inno Setup is a free software^[1] script-driven installation system^[2] created in Delphi by Jordan Russell. The first version was released in 1997.

History

Since Jordan Russell wasn't satisfied with InstallShield Express which he had received upon purchase of Borland Delphi, he decided to make his own installer.^[3] The first public version was 1.09.^{[citation needed]}

To make an installation package with version 1.09, an "ISS.TXT" file needed to be created in the installation directory. In the file, the user needed to supply variables and values which are still used in Inno Setup today. These variables served as the configuration of the installation package but many other features could not be changed. The installation compiler had no editor and was more of a shell to compile scripts.

Inno Setup grew popular due to being free for both commercial and non-commercial use,^[4] many software companies switched to the tool.^{[citation needed]} Since Inno Setup was based around scripting, fans of Inno Setup started ISTool and ScriptMaker to aid in visual and simpler ways to make installations for Inno Setup.

Inno Setup has won many awards including the Shareware Industry Awards three times in a row — from 2002 to 2004.^[5]

Many people have taken Inno Setup source code and used it to develop third-party versions of Inno Setup.^[6] An example is My Inno Setup Extensions by Martijn Laan, which was incorporated into Inno Setup in June 2003.^[7]

Features

Key features

Support for multiple platforms (IA-32, x64 and IA-64) in a single binary. ARM64 is also supported.
Supports creation of a single EXE to install programs for easy online distribution (MSI support requires third-party products)
Supports disk spanning
Customizable setup types, for example, "full", "minimal", and "custom"
Complete uninstall capabilities
Supports Windows Vista and later.^[8] Earlier versions supported Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (OS requirements change), Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 (before 5.5.0), Windows NT 3.51 (before v3.0.0) and Windows 3.X (Before v1.3.0).
Integrated support for DEFLATE, bzip2, and LZMA file compression
Support for comparing file version information, replacing in-use files, shared file counting, registering DLL/OCXs and type libraries, and installing fonts
Creation of shortcuts, including in the Start Menu and on the desktop
Creation of registry and INI file entries
Integrated scripting engine based on Pascal Script
Support for multilingual installs
Support for passworded and encrypted installs
Silent install and uninstall
Supports Unicode and right-to-left languages^[9]

References

^ ^a ^b "Inno Setup License". JRSoftware.org. 7 January 2016.
^ Thornton, Bob. "Inno Setup 6.0.3 - Developer & Programming - Downloads". Tech Advisor. Retrieved 21 January 2020.^{[dead link]}
^ "Inno Setup". jrsoftware.org // Jordan Russell's Software. 6 April 2001. Archived from the original on 6 April 2001. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
^ Thorn, A. (2009). Cross Platform Game Development. Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 359. ISBN 978-0-7637-8281-8. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
^ "L'association d'un type de fichier avec un exécutable .NET". Blog de Roger MIOT (in French). 17 October 2012. Archived from the original on 17 July 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
^ "Inno Setup Third-Party Files". jrsoftware.org // Jordan Russell's Software. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
^ "Inno Setup 4.0 Revision History". jrsoftware.org // Jordan Russell's Software. 9 January 2004. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
^ "About Inno Setup". JRSoftware.org.
^ "Inno Setup change log". JRSoftware.org. Retrieved 18 January 2010.

External links

Official website
Inno Setup on GitHub
The Inno Setup Extensions Knowledge Base (offline, link to archived page)
Inno Setup Review by Dave Murray - An extensive review of Inno Setup (offline, link to archived page)
Lexpa ISVS - Inno Setup add-in for Visual Studio (offline, link to archived page)
Inno Setup reporting via Google Analytics - How can developers can see installation statistics of Inno Setup via Google Analytics.

[ncp-1] "Inno Setup License". JRSoftware.org. 7 January 2016.

[2] Thornton, Bob. "Inno Setup 6.0.3 - Developer & Programming - Downloads". Tech Advisor. Retrieved 21 January 2020.^{[dead link]}

[3] "Inno Setup". jrsoftware.org // Jordan Russell's Software. 6 April 2001. Archived from the original on 6 April 2001. Retrieved 21 January 2020.

[4] Thorn, A. (2009). Cross Platform Game Development. Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 359. ISBN 978-0-7637-8281-8. Retrieved 21 January 2020.

[5] "L'association d'un type de fichier avec un exécutable .NET". Blog de Roger MIOT (in French). 17 October 2012. Archived from the original on 17 July 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2020.

[6] "Inno Setup Third-Party Files". jrsoftware.org // Jordan Russell's Software. Retrieved 21 January 2020.

[7] "Inno Setup 4.0 Revision History". jrsoftware.org // Jordan Russell's Software. 9 January 2004. Retrieved 21 January 2020.

[supported-os-8] "About Inno Setup". JRSoftware.org.

[unicode-9] "Inno Setup change log". JRSoftware.org. Retrieved 18 January 2010.

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