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

Chapter 16: Building, Testing, and Distributing Installations
Configuring and Building Releases
• You specify for the InstallShield prerequisites location that the prerequisites should be extracted
from Setup.exe or copied from the source media (instead of being downloaded from the Web to the
end user’s computer).
• The prerequisite files are not on your computer.
To eliminate the build errors, remove the InstallShield prerequisite from your project, download the
InstallShield prerequisite from the Internet to your computer, or change the InstallShield prerequisites
location for the release to the download option; then rebuild the release.
Media Compression
Each release type (for example, CD_ROM, DVD, and SingleImage) that is available in the Releases view
includes a setting called Compression. If you want to use a compression algorithm that will decrease the
size of your installation, select Compressed for this setting. With this setting, your installation files are
compressed into .cab files.
If you do not want your files to be compressed on the release media, select Uncompressed for the
Compression setting.
Floppy Disk Distributions
Although it is not directly supported, you can distribute your release via floppy disk by using the Custom
release type. The challenges that arise when you try to build your release on floppy disks are described
below:
• Disk Space—If you want the Windows Installer to be installed before your product is installed, the
Windows Installer must be installed first. Because of the file size for the Windows Installer
redistributables, it is difficult to distribute your installation on a floppy disk if you need to distribute
the Windows Installer engine as well.
• Disk Spanning—The .msi file that is created by InstallShield and that interacts with the Windows
Installer service cannot be spanned across multiple disks. In addition, it must reside on the first disk
of your installation. Therefore, if you want to include all of your files in one compressed .msi file, it
might not fit on one floppy disk. However, if your files can remain uncompressed, they can be
included on successive disks of the installation.
Building a Release for Floppy Disk Distribution
Task To build a release for floppy disk distribution:
1. In the View List under Prepare for Release, click Releases.
2. In the Builds explorer, click Custom.
3. Click the Build tab.
4. For the Media Size setting, type 1.4.
5. For the Media Size Unit setting, type MB.
InstallShield 2012 Express Edition User Guide ISE-1800-UG01 313