InstallShield 2012 Express Edition User Guide - Knowledge Base ...

Compressed Size
Chapter 16: Building, Testing, and Distributing Installations
Configuring and Building Releases
Although many people now connect to the Internet through high-speed cable modems or DSL lines,
others still use lower-speed modems. Package size is very important to people with slower connections
due to the increased amount of online time required to download an application.
Self-Extracting
Many file compression utilities require a special client-side application to decompress the application
files. This need for another utility complicates the download and installation process for users. To
simplify the installation process, the compression utility you use should be self-extracting, so no other
application is required.
Digitally Signed
To make your customers feel more secure about downloading and installing your software, you can
digitally sign your application package. The digital signature identifies you and/or your company to end
users and assures them that the application code has not been altered or tampered with since
publication. To learn how to digitally sign your application, see Digital Signing and Security.
To learn more about digital signatures, visit www.verisign.com.
Easy to Use
Perhaps the most important aspect of packaging your installation for Internet distribution is making it
easy to use. Your customers may not want to specify a location where the installation files should be
saved and then search their computer to locate those files. Instead, the setup should be seamlessly
integrated into the compression package, requiring only one step to begin the installation.
Proxy Server Support
You may want to configure your installation to download certain files only if they are needed on the
target system. For example, the Windows Installer engine, the .NET Framework, and some InstallShield
prerequisites may already be present on some or most target systems. Instead of embedding these files
in your installation (which would increase your overall installation size), you can configure your project
so that only the ones that are needed are downloaded at run time.
If your end users access the Internet through a proxy server and your installation is configured to
download files, the installation uses the system proxy settings that are manually configured in Internet
Explorer during the download. This occurs even if another browser on the target system is the default
browser.
Note that InstallShield does not include support for the Automatically Detect Settings functionality in
Internet Explorer. (If end users have the Automatically Detect Settings check box selected in Internet
Explorer for their LAN connection and the installation needs to download files, the installation fails
because the files cannot be downloaded. If it is possible that your end users may have the Automatically
Detect Settings check box selected in Internet Explorer for their LAN connections, you may want to
embed all of the files in your installation rather than configure them to be downloaded; if the files are
embedded, the failures can be avoided.) However, InstallShield does support the Automatic
Configuration Script functionality that is set up for LAN connections in Internet Explorer.
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