Category: News – Visual Installer

In the previous two blog posts we described how to run a program or show a document after an installation, when running a setup package created with Visual Installer. It is also possible to run a program or open a document via Visual Installer´s script language.

One benefit of using script for running a program or opening a document is that you can use a conditional check before you run/open the file. You can for example run different versions of a program depending on which operating system the installation is run in. For example:

  
In the same way you can open and show a particular document based on a condition. For example:

  
The RUN command above (example 1) is executed immediately and the SHOW_AFTER command above (example 2) is executed when the installation is completed. Read more below.
  
Script commands in Visual Installer that run programs
These three script commands can be used to run programs during an installation:

  
Script commands in Visual Installer that open documents
These two script commands can be used to open documents during an installation:

  
The RUN, XRUN and SHOW commands are executed immediately, when the script line is executed, but the RUN_AFTER and SHOW_AFTER commands delays it execution till the installation is completed and the last setup dialog box has been closed.

The RUN_AFTER and SHOW_AFTER commands are new commands that were included in version 12.0.10 of Visual Installer (read more).

See also
> How to run a program after an installation
> How to show a document after an installation

In the Enterprise version of Visual Installer 2022 it is possible to build a setup package 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 from build servers. A build server is useful if you work in a team and your team want to, for example, compile applications or build setup packages in one operation.

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

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

More information
In the following tip on our website you can read how to use this function in Visual Installer:

> Tip: Visual Installer’s command line parameters

In this blog post we described how to check if Microsoft Access is installed in a computer by using script code in Visual Installer. But if you want to check if a specific version of Access is installed. Is it possible?

Yes. It is. It is possible to check if a specific version of Access is installed in a computer. To achieve this, you can extend this conditional test:

IF ACCESS_INSTALLED

with a version number, like this:

IF ACCESS(15)_INSTALLED

In the example above, Visual Installer will check if Access version 15 (Access 2013) is installed. The conditional test gives True if Access version 15 is installed and False if it is not.

How to check for a specific bitness of Access
It is also possible to check if a specific bitness (32 or 64 bit) of Microsoft Access is installed in a computer – in addition to the version number. For example, to check if a 64 bit version of Access 2013 (version 15) is installed, you can use the following script:

IF ACCESS(15)_64BIT_INSTALLED

If you instead want to check if a 32 bit version of Access 2013 is installed, you can use the following script line:

IF ACCESS(15)_32BIT_INSTALLED

If you want to check which bitness of Access that is installed, regardless of the version number, there is another conditional test than you can use. For example, to check if any 64 bit Access is installed in the computer, you can use the following conditional test:

IF ACCESSBIT=64

In the same way you can check if any 32 bit Access is installed in the computer, by using this conditional test:

IF ACCESSBIT=32

Examples
Below are some script examples that shows how to use the conditional tests:

  
Access version numbers
In this blog post you will find a list with available version numbers for some of the conditional tests described above.

If you add more than one shortcut to the Start menu in Windows during an installation, and one of the shortcuts is used to open your main application and the other shortcuts are used to open extra tools (when needed), you can now let Visual Installer inform Windows which of the shortcuts that opens your main application.

The shortcut to the main application will be more visible in the Start menu and the other shortcuts will be toned down. By using this new function in Visual Installer you will also eliminate the risk that wrong program is featured in the Start menu. This is a risk if you let Windows itself decide which program(s) that are the most important in your installation. Sometimes Windows makes a wrong guess here.

This is a new function in Visual Installer 2022 and is located in the Program group / menu dialog box in Visual Installer’s editor. A combobox with a list of all program files with shortcuts in the current installation project will be available in the dialog box. From the combobox you can choose which program is your installation’s main program. See the picture below for an example:

The picture above shows the settings in the installation project for installation of our product MultiMailer 2022. The program file MultMail.exe has been selected as the installation’s main program. The other program files are tools that are seldom used, but they will be in the Start menu in a program group folder, and used when needed.

This new function is especially useful in Windows 11, where recently added shortcuts are featured in an extra clear way. For an example, see below:

The example above shows how MultiMailer 2022 is featured in the Start menu in Windows 11. The other shortcuts in the installation project are not visible here. Instead they are visible if you click on the All apps button (in the upper right) and opens the program group folder (named SamLogic MultiMailer).

This function will also be useful in older Windows. Recently added shortcuts are featured also there, but in a different way compared with Windows 11.

In this blog post we described how to check if Microsoft Office is installed in a computer during an installation. But what if Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint is installed, but not Microsoft Access, which is what you want? How to handle this situation in Visual Installer?

In the new Visual Installer 2022 the answer is to use a new script condition that we have added to the script language. The name of the new script condition is IF ACCESS_INSTALLED and with this script condition you can check if Microsoft Access specifically has been installed in the computer. So instead of trying to use the Microsoft Office condition check (as described in the earlier blog post) you can use the new Microsoft Access condition check instead.

Below we show two examples of how to use the new condition:

 
You can also test if Microsoft Excel has been installed or not in the same way. Below we show two examples of how to use the Excel condition:

 
It is also useful to know if the user has installed a 32 bit or 64 bit version of the Office program. But here you can use the same condition in Visual Installer’s script language as before (see the second half of this blog post for details).

For many years Visual Installer have had built-in functionality to create an installation for a Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Basic .NET application, and in the latest version of Visual Installer we have added the same functionality for Visual C#. You can now create an installation for a Visual C# application in an easy way.

Besides collecting necessary files and setting correct destination folders for your project, you can also specify minimum system requirements (for example minimum .NET version) for the installation package. If the necessary .NET versions are not installed, the installer can inform and handle the download directly from the installation wizard.

Read more
Here is some more information about the new function:
> Visual Installer 2020: Visual C# is now supported

And here is a step-by-step tip that show how to use the function:
> Tip: How to create an installation for a Visual C# application