Interface
The interface presented by InstallAware provides both a visual and script view of your installation. The visual view (see image at right) parses your setup script and the other way around, so that each is always up-to-date reflecting any change made. The visual view contains 26 separate pages that represent different aspects of your installation, from files being installed to your setup dialog designs.

Scripting
Not that any scripting is required, but definitely the most enticing feature is InstallAware's scripting support. The unique scripting options still provide full support for all Windows Installer standards: every setup that is generated by InstallAware is in full compliance with all Windows Installer standards and features. And it does so without any runtime/scripting requirements.

Anyone that has played with custom actions will know that there are many limitations when trying to work with simple constructs such as an “else” condition or loop. InstallAware aims to make MSI scripting behave as you wish it did. To edit the parameters of a command, just double-click it. A dialog box pops up with the options that are available for that command and if you wish context sensitive help is available.

InstallAware does not take the approach of offering its own proprietary runtime (as vendors such as InstallShield and Wise do) but instead offer what they refer to as “Genuine Windows Installer Scripting”. One major benefit is you don’t need to worry about pre-installation of a script interpreter and native support for Windows Installer capabilities such as running with elevated privileges.

One limitation in this enhanced scripting functionality is that loops are not supported when executing Windows Installer statements. While the InstallAware script contains constructs that allow you to code loops, if you execute a Windows Installer statement multiple times within a loop, only the last iteration of that command will actually run on the target system. At any rate, this is an inherent limitation of Windows Installer and is a situation you should be able to easily avoid.

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