InstallAware has certainly come a long way in a short time. I had a look at InstallAware 2005 just over a year ago and was happy to see something innovative being done within the sometimes restrictive confines of the Windows Installer (without the need for scripting runtimes). As you will see, InstallAware has become much more focused on what it can do for Windows Administrators (not just developers)...

There are a number of cool samples projects included that give you a good idea of how InstallAware aims to stand out from its competition: for example there are sample projects for user feedback, online user authentication, serial validation, MS SQL Server connections, Multi-Lingual setups, saving web downloads, multiple instances and DIFx Driver Installation.

The sample projects open with a Welcome tab and a project tab, the default view is the MSIcode view which may seem a bit overwhelming on first launch. However, if you choose the Visual view from the tab at the bottom left of the screen you’ll see a very friendly visual view.

The DIFx Driver Installation project is a good one to start with because it is does a rather good job of showing you what your setup can be capable of. As with several functions that can normally be a challenge when working with MSI setups, driver installation is something most would love to see made easy. I'll get more into what other kinds of unique actions are provided by InstallAware later, but for now I want to step back and take a broader look:

If you have the demo installed, you can follow along, but it is quite easy.

1. Click the "new" button from the toolbar (first one on the left) and choose "DIFx Driver Installation from the list of samples displayed. Give it any name or path you want, but for testing purposes, the default "My Sample Project" works just fine.

2. Build the project by choosing build from the toolbar (or menu bar under "Project).

3. Click the "Run current project without debugging" button from the toolbar which appears as a red explanation point (also located under the menu bar under "Run").

4. The setup installs, but you'll see it runs more like an application (that runs as a MSI) than a typical setup. You are presented with the dialog shown here, where you can install the driver and then install the "Virtual Toaster Device". Obviously, this is a sample driver with sample hardware available for demonstration purposes (a rather clever way for InstallAware to show off).

5. From here, choose Install Virtual Toaster Driver, click next and the driver installs. When done, you are brought back to this same dialog.

6. Choose "Attach Virtual Toaster Device" and Windows will detect the new device and install the driver (so you can confirm it works).

7. When you are done playing, choose "Unplug", "Uninstall" and finally "Remove" to clean up.

Note: you will also notice that along side the "Run current project without debugging" button is a simple "Run Current Project" button. This runs the project with the built-in debugger, which has the code view scroll to highlight the current portion of the script being executed as the installation takes place. While other solutions offer a debugger, I really like how InstallAware puts it in the forefront as part of its normal operation (as opposed to a separate view or even a separate tool).

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