Description:
Creating effective install programs is all too often an afterthought in many software projects. This book shows how easy it is to take advantage of the features of InstallShield (the leading installation toolkit from InstallShield Software). The first part of Bulletproof Installs looks at the powerful capabilities of InstallShield 5.1. (A demo of the product is included in the accompanying CD-ROM.) InstallShield can automate every aspect of even complex installations, including "add-on" Microsoft technologies such as DirectX (for games), Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), ActiveX Data Object (ADO), Remote Data Objects (RDO), and object linking and embedding database (OLE-DB). The author shows you how to use the built-in wizards to create basic--and powerful--install programs. The book goes further, too, with full coverage of InstallShield's very powerful InstallScript programming script language, which supports extensive data types and flow-control statements and several hundred APIs. Other valuable chapters look at operating system issues for installation (and uninstallation), such as the Windows 95 and NT 4 System Registry conventions and other conventions of a "correct" install. The book closes with a how-to on extending and customizing installation scripts. --Richard Dragan
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