InstallShield: Editions

Premier

The top-tier InstallShield Premier Edition is the world’s most powerful and flexible solution for Windows installations. Software companies serious about providing reliable, professional installations for their applications trust the InstallShield Premier Edition. Try it now and see.

InstallShield Premier Edition gives you all the capabilities of our Professional Edition, plus tons of exclusive functionality, including:

• Avoid common installation issues—Validators in the InstallShield Best Practices Validation Suite alert you if your installation violates any best practices guidelines.
• Improve your end user's experience—With refreshed end-user dialog designs.
• Easily convert legacy installations into MSI packages—With InstallShield Repackager, you can easily create MSI packages.
• Localize your installation—InstallShield's multilingual support lets you create installations for 35 runtime languages from one installation project.
• Quickly roll out new installations—With network repositories, it's easy to build a repository of common elements that multiple installation authors can access and reuse in projects.
• Create trial versions without modifying code—With the try-and-die type of trialware's simple configuration changes, you can easily offer potential customers a fully functional. trial version of your product (After the predetermined trial limit has been reached on an end user's machine, the trial version automatically expires).
• Save time with the IIS Scanner—Only the Premier Edition allows you to import the IIS data from an existing Web site into your InstallShield project automatically using the IIS Scanner.
• Maintain a clean build system—Each license of InstallShield Premier Edition includes five free Standalone Build licenses.
• Build Events—Eliminate the need to manage external script files by integrating new pre- and post-build events with your InstallShield build process.
• Better collaborate with team members—InstallShield Collaboration Module allows up to 5 developers to collaborate with their setup author.

InstallShield Premier Edition is available as either a node-locked or concurrent license. You can also optionally purchase the Virtualization Pack with the Premier Edition to support building Microsoft App-V virtual packages.

Professional

InstallShield Professional Edition is a powerful and easy-to-use solution for building Windows installations. It is ideal for both novice and seasoned software installation developers. While most homegrown Windows installation tools are not optimized for current industry standards, InstallShield Professional lets you take advantage of all the latest technologies. Try it now and see.

Although missing many of the features of the top-tiered InstallShield Premier Edition, InstallShield Professional Edition does have all the functionality of the InstallShield Express Edition, plus the following:

• Reduce development time—Quickly and easily build your installations by moving pieces of an existing project (dialogs, custom actions, or features) to another installation project; create and manage re-usable project outlines so you don't have to start your installations from scratch.
• Easily customize your installations—Modify the layout of existing end-user dialogs; manage multiple product versions, allowing specific features to be included in a release via user-defined flags; and much more.
• Build installations for 64-bit installations—Create reliable installations for both 32-bit and 64-bit applications in one installation project.
• Better control your installations with InstallScript—Add InstallScript custom actions to your MSI projects or create InstallScript projects that control your entire installation.
• Get advanced support for latest technologies—.NET Framework 4.0, IIS 7.0, Windows Server 2008 R2, Direct X 9.0c, Windows Mobile platforms, and more; edit XML files; and add 64-bit support to your installations.
• Validate your installations for Windows 7—Ensure your software installs and runs reliably on Windows 7.
• Maintain a clean build system—Each license of InstallShield Professional Edition includes one free Standalone Build license.

InstallShield Professional Edition is available as either a node-locked or concurrent license. You can also optionally purchase the Virtualization Pack with the Professional Edition to support building Microsoft App-V virtual packages

Express

InstallShield Express Edition is ideal for software developers and setup authors looking for a quick, easy, and cost-effective solution for creating reliable Windows Installer (MSI) installations. Try it now and see.

Unlike homegrown solutions, InstallShield Express Edition shields you from the complexities of building a setup. It comes with an easy-to-use Project Assistant – a wizard that guides you through the MSI installation creating process, step-by-step.

• Easy to learn and use—The Express Edition sizably reduces the time required for setup authors to successfully complete installation projects. It also lets experienced developers save time by more efficiently jumpstarting new projects.
• Fits into any budget—The Express Edition is ideal for software developers and setup authors looking for a cost-effective solution for creating reliable Windows Installer (MSI) installations.
• Available in different languages—The Express Edition is available in English and Japanese to offer developers the flexibility to build in their own language.