InstallAware 10 First to Market with Hybrid Installation Technology, Extending Windows Installer with Faster Native Code Setup Engine

HONOLULU, Nov. 9, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- InstallAware Marketing Corporation has released InstallAware 10, a setup authoring tool for ISVs and enterprises deploying products, patches, and web updates. InstallAware 10 creates Native Code and Windows Installer setup packages with support for the latest technologies, including Windows 7, Microsoft .NET Framework 4, Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2, and 64 bit operating systems. InstallAware 10 integrates into the Visual Studio IDE, automatically creating customizable setup projects for all kinds of solutions. InstallAware 10 also offers one-click upgrade wizards from leading software installation technology vendors, including InstallShield and Wise.

"With Microsoft's removal of the Windows Installer requirement from the Windows 7 client logo program, we naturally gravitated towards building our own setup engine, free from the inherent limitations of Windows Installer," says Agustin K-ballo Berge, Vice President of Research and Development at InstallAware. "We already had a very powerful setup bootstrapper for Windows Installer, the most capable one in the industry. Building on top of this solid foundation, and our intuitive scripting language MSIcode, we are now shipping a much faster, reliable Native Code setup engine."

With the Native Engine, InstallAware 10 can finally transcend the inherent limitations of Windows Installer. For instance, Windows Installer based setups cannot be repaired or removed in Safe Mode, while the Native Engine does not have this limitation. Additionally, a lot of decisions are required by Windows Installer to be made at design time, while the software developer is still constructing a setup package, unaware of the state of the target computer. The Native Engine improves setup reliability, scalability, and intelligence by permitting deferring those decisions until runtime, when the state of the target computer becomes known. Hybrid Installation Technology offers a much more adaptable, flexible setup package to end-users. This lowers support costs and significantly accelerates the setup development cycle at the same time - by reducing the different number of setup packages that must be built for an application to just one.

"Our Native Engine embraces and extends Windows Installer, while not requiring platform exclusivity," adds Sinan Karaca, Founder of InstallAware. "Developers are free to choose - even at runtime within setups that have already been built - which engine to use in powering an installation. In fact, both engines may even be simultaneously used to install the different components of, and updates for, an application."

InstallAware 10 setups work on all 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows, from the very first version of Windows 95 released in August 1995, to the latest 64 bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2. All existing InstallAware setups may be used as-is with the Native Engine, simply by calling the MSIcode function "Set Variable NATIVE_ENGINE to TRUE". Setting the variable back to FALSE reverts setup back to the Windows Installer engine.

InstallAware is available in multiple editions with prices starting at US$669. A time limited fully-functional trial download is available at www.installaware.com. Significant competitive upgrade discounts are available for both InstallShield and Wise customers at www.installaware.com/buydirect.asp - accessible immediately when an old InstallShield or Wise serial is provided on the page.

About InstallAware Software Corporation

InstallAware Software Corporation, founded in 2003, is a software development company focused solely on state of the art software installation tools which offer the highest compression ratios and bullet-proof installations. The company produces software installation and compression technologies for the Windows Installer (MSI) platform on the Microsoft Windows Operating System. InstallAware is supported by thousands of users worldwide, and is an Embarcadero Integrated Partner. For more information, visit www.installaware.com.

InstallShield® is a trademark and/or registered trademark and/or service mark of Flexera Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Wise Installation System® and WiseScript® are trademarks and/or registered trademarks and/or service marks of Symantec Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

All other marks are property of their respective owners.

SOURCE InstallAware Marketing Corporation