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:

• Enhanced suite capabilities—Ability to import and reference PRQ files as Suite packages, dynamic links for Suite packages, advanced reporting and logging on Suite packages as well as a new UI for custom conditions.
• Support complex requirements with minimal scripting or coding—With the InstallShield Suite/Advanced UI Project type, multiple products can be easily bundled together into a single, unified suite installation, eliminating the need to develop a custom launcher or bootstrapper application.
• Provide an "app-store like" experience—End users only need to download a small file to quickly start the installation.
• Support distributed, collaborative installation development—The InstallShield Collaboration add-on allows distributed product developers and technical writers to more efficiently create and manage their portion of the installation. Premier Edition includes 5 licenses of Developer Installation Manifest Editor.
• Leverage the advances offered by 64-bit operating systems—The most comprehensive support for 64-bit installation development including 64-bit dependency scanning, setting permissions for files, folders and registry keys, and a prerequisite that installs the 64-bit version of the Microsoft VSTO 2010 Runtime.
• Maintain a clean build system—Each license of InstallShield Premier Edition includes five free Standalone Build licenses.
• Avoid common installation issues—Validators in the InstallShield Best Practices Validation Suite alert you if your installation violates any best practices guidelines.
• 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.

InstallShield Premier Edition is available as 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:

• Create a better run-time experience—Entirely new end-user interface with redesigned built-in wizard pages and a new, advanced wizard page editor create a better run-time experience.
• Support hybrid cloud deployments—SQL Azure database scripting capabilities enable hybrid cloud SQL deployments.
• Provide deployment metadata—Microsoft^® System Center 2012 Configuration Manager support enables software producers to provide required deployment metadata to their Enterprise customers, reducing the burden in managing their application.
• Ensure users always have latest version of your application installed—Automatically checks for the latest updates and patches at installer runtime, and if an update is found, it will automatically be downloaded and run in place of the old installer.
• Streamline installation scripting—PowerShell Support offers software producers the ability to streamline installation scripting requirements and support best practices of their Enterprise customers.
• Advanced support for key technologies—Includes prerequisites that install Internet Explorer 9, SQL Server 2008 R2 Native Client, Windows Identity Foundation .NET Framework 4.5, SQL Server 2012 Express, SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB, and JRE SE 1.7, and more.
• Maintain a clean build system—Each license of InstallShield Professional Edition includes one free Standalone Build license.
• 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.
• Validate your installations for Windows 7—Ensure your software installs and runs reliably on Windows 7.

InstallShield Professional Edition is available as 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.
• Support for new Microsoft technologies—Support for Windows^® 8, Windows Server^® 2012 and Visual Studio^® 2012.
• Avoid risk exposure and non-compliance—InstallShield is the only strategic installation development solution that creates ISO 19770-2 software identification tags as part of the installation development process.
• 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.