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InstallShield 11, starting at $1,399
Macrovision
Schaumburg, Illinois
(847) 466-4000
http://www.installshield.com
InstallShield, of course, is one of the well-established brands in building setup programs, both for Windows and (in their Universal flavor) for other operating systems. They've just released a new version, which of course preserves all of the existing functionality, from integration with Visual Studio to deep understanding of the Windows Installer format. I wrote a review of their version 10.5 release for ADTmag.com, and there's no real need to repeat all of those details here, especially because I suspect the majority of my readers are already familiar with at least one version of InstallShield.
As you'd expect, 11.0 does add some new features over 10.5. For the Windows version, this includes full support for Windows Installer 3.1 (which Microsoft apparently intends to distribute via Windows Update once they work out the last few kinks), IIS6 support, support for scripting Oracle databases at installation time (putting Oracle support on par with SQL Server and MySQL), 64-bit functions in InstallScript, and updated support for third-party objects. They also managed to cut the size of the evaluation download in half to 220MB while doing all this. For those using the Universal product, you can now create RPMs for installation on Linux, and there's a new automation API for incorporating InstallShield into automated build processes.
Overall, those changes amount to "nice to have" and justify the minor version number bump. But the real news here is the introduction and integration of the InstallShield Activation Service, built by combining Macrovision's existing FLEXNet activation service with InstallSheild. Basically, this service lets you set up parameters within the setup authoring environment to control things like how many trial uses your application should allow, the serial number format, and the URL for purchasing a license. InstallShield itself runs the servers that handle online activation (and supplies backup phone and email activation services just in case). Software publishers get a Web site that lets them manage things like products and versions. When a customer is ready to buy, they put in their serial number and the product communicates with the activation server to unlock the full license.
The InstallShield Activation Service is an optional add-on, starting around $700 for 1,000 activations per year. That's a darned good price when you think about what you get: turnkey try-before-you-buy functionality integrated right into the setup, with someone else handling all the hassles of Internet connectivity and scalability. There are some limitations (you need to be installing an actual executable or DLL for the technology to work, and you need to qualify a minimum level of sales), but if your business can benefit from piracy protection this ought to pay off fairly quickly in recovered sales. Even though setup authoriing itself is a pretty mature field, it looks like InstallShield is finding interesting and innovative ways to use services to keep their own business growing.
Mike Gunderloy is the lead developer for Larkware and author of numerous books and articles on programming topics.