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2007-07-12 by venkat

Objective: To evaluate and review Dacris ActiSetup 2005. Pros: --> Simple, user friendly and intuitive interface --> Good layout and customizable features --> Wizard support to create installation package --> Support for distribution of installer in different forms --> Integrated and Dynamic help --> Support for installation of assemblies --> Comprehensive coverage of all the installer components --> Countless built-in features --> Support for organization of features and components --> Support for customization of dialogs --> Automatic detection of Merge modules --> Support for adding 3rd party merge modules --> Dependencies Installer --> Wizard for application search --> Support for application auto update --> Easy navigation --> Abundant features --> Direct MSI table editor --> Property Table Editor Areas of Enhancement: --> Support for enhanced installer security such as enhanced serial number entry or setup expiration dates configuration. --> Pre-defined custom actions --> Pre-defined launch conditions --> Support for the creation of an uninstaller Details: Dacris ActiSetup 2005 was used in this review. The evaluation was done on a Windows XP Professional computer. The user interface was easy to understand and easy to get around. The explorer style navigation enabled me to navigate from one page to another very easily and swiftly. Unlike many applications where the interface is cluttered, the interface in this program is clean, easy to understand and is not flooded with unnecessary menus and toolbars. I started by clicking on New Project button to create a project that started a wizard to create a project. The wizard was easy to understand and walked me through the steps to setup a project to create the setup file. I filled in all the required parameters and properties and generated setup files. The built-in Help feature enabled me to quickly understand features. The built-in Help that can optionally be shown helped me quickly understand some components of the program. I was able to add all the files that I wished to install on the target computer. The Files page is easy to work with to add files to the installer. The support files feature helps the user to optionally exclude files from being installed on the target computer. This would allow the user to use the excluded files during the installation process but at the same time not install on the target computer. There are options to create shortcuts, advertise shortcuts, register libraries, register assemblies and set some vital file properties. The built-in dialogs proved useful to me. They are simple and easy to use. They can be customized as well. The user can create own dialogs to complement the built-in dialogs. The preview feature is also very useful in viewing the dialogs before building the installer. Several other configurations found are the ability to create shortcuts, capability to define file associations, capability to read from/write to registry, capability to create/edit INI files, capability to set up environment variables, COM Registration, ODBC resources, Windows Services, etc. Another powerful and striking feature is the capability to automatically update the installed programs. ActiSetup provides the capability to have the installed application check for and update automatically. Wrap Up: There are several Install creators in the market today that promise to do a lot of things. In my opinion a

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