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Visual Installer can now import Visual Studio solution files

We have improved Visual Installer’s ability to co-operate with Microsoft Visual Studio. Since many years Visual Installer has been able to import Visual Studio / Visual Basic project files (.vbproj), but starting with Visual Installer 2015 also solution files (.sln) can be imported.

This is very useful if you have a solution that contains many projects. If you choose to import a solution file, Visual Installer will analyze all projects in the solution and import the necessary files.

How to import a Visual Studio solution file
If you want to import a Visual Studio solution file to Visual Installer you can choose the Import Visual Basic project — Visual Basic .NET 2005-2015 project menu item in the File menu in Visual Installer’s editor:

Thereafter you click on the Select project file button in the dialog box that is shown:

As default, project files (.vbproj files) are filtered out in the Open dialog box that is shown, but to the right in the Open dialog box you can choose solution files (.sln files) instead:

Now you can choose a Visual Studio solution file to import.

See also
We have published a step-by-step tip on our website that shows in detail how to import a Visual Basic project or solution to Visual Installer. There is also a tip video available.

> Tip: How to create an installation for a VB.NET application

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Easy to create multiple menu pages with CD-Menu Creator’s new wizard

Sometimes one menu page is not enough in a menu system. Sometimes you may want to create a menu system with many menu pages, for example one main menu and some sub menus. Although it has been possible to create such a system with CD-Menu Creator since many years, it has sometimes been complicated to get all file paths in all buttons correct. With CD-Menu Creator 2015 things have changed. We have now included an easy-to-use wizard that creates a menu system with more than menu page (for example a main menu and some sub menus) very easily.

When you use the wizard, all file paths will be set to correctly automatically. All files will also be created and copied to correct folders on your hard disk or USB flash drive, and all necessary project files (.CDP files) will be created automatically.

When you create a system with a main menu and sub menus, all sub menus will automatically have the same visual theme and use same colors, fonts, button styles etc. as the main menu. If you have added a logotype or menu picture to the main menu, they will be included automatically in all sub menus also.

All necessary buttons to open a sub menu or return to the main menu are included automatically in all menu pages and in all project files. If you create menu systems with many menu pages often, we are sure that you will appreciate this new function a lot!


More information
More information about the new wizard in CD-Menu Creator 2015 is available on this tip page on our website.

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CD-Menu Creator now supports Unicode characters

You can now use Unicode characters in a menu that you create with CD-Menu Creator. This allows you to use characters from any language in the world in your menus. E.g. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Arabic, Greek, Russian etc. You can also mix different languages in the same menu interface. For example, you can use Chinese, Japanese and English text in the same menu. Unicode characters can be used for titles, button text, tip text etc.

The Unicode characters in created menu interfaces will be shown correctly regardless of which language the Windows itself uses.

More information
Support for Unicode characters is a new function in CD-Menu Creator 2015. On this web page you can find more information about Unicode characters and information about how to use them in CD-Menu Creator 2015:

> Tip: How to use Unicode characters in a menu

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Build a setup package or menu interface silently using a batch file

With Visual Installer 2015 and CD-Menu Creator 2015 it is possible to build a setup package and a menu interface silently, without any interaction with a graphical user interface. The build process is invisible, and you use command line parameters and switches to handle the build operations. And errors that occur (if there are any) are returned via a log file that contain detailed error descriptions and error codes etc.

Build servers
The silent build processes via command line parameters / switches makes it easy to call Visual Installer 2015 and CD-Menu Creator 2015 from build servers. A build server is useful if you work in a team and your team want to, for example, compile applications, build setup packages and (perhaps) build menu interfaces in one operation.

Batch files
You can also utilize this new function from local batch files (for example from traditional .BAT files). You can add one line of code for each setup package or menu interface that you want to build, in the batch file. For example:

VI.exe C:\MyProjects\MySetup.vip /BUILD /BUILDFOLDER:C:\MyCreatedSetups\Setup1

More information
We have added two detailed tips on our website that describes how to use this new function in Visual Installer 2015 and CD-Menu Creator 2015:

> Tip: Visual Installer’s command line parameters
> Tip: CD-Menu Creator’s command line parameters