Inno Setup is a

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, ...

script-driven installation system created in

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracl ...

by Jordan Russell. The first version was released in 1997.

History

Since Jordan Russell wasn't satisfied with InstallShield Express which he had received upon purchase of Borland Delphi, he decided to make his own installer. The first public version was 1.09. To make an installation package with version 1.09, an "ISS.TXT" file needed to be created in the installation directory. In the file, the user needed to supply variables and values which are still used in Inno Setup today. These variables served as the configuration of the installation package but many other features could not be changed. The installation

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...

had no

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, ...

and was more of a shell to compile

scripts Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of ha ...

. Inno Setup grew popular due to being free and open source; free for both commercial and non-commercial use, many

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

companies switched to the tool. Since Inno Setup was based around scripting, fans of Inno Setup started ISTool and ScriptMaker to aid in visual and simpler ways to make installations for Inno Setup. Inno Setup has won many awards including the Shareware Industry Awards three times in a row — from 2002 to 2004. Many people have taken Inno Setup source code and used it to develop third-party versions of Inno Setup. An example is ''My Inno Setup Extensions'' by Martijn Laan, which was incorporated into Inno Setup in June 2003.

Features

Key features

* Supports

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

and later. Earlier versions supported

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was official ...

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...

and

Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 is the sixth version of Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows NT family of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on March 28, 2003 and generally available on April 24, ...

OS requirements change
,

Windows 9x Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced from 1995 to 2000, which were based on the Windows 95 kernel and its underlying foundation of MS-DOS, both of which were updated in sub ...

and Windows NT 4.0
before 5.5.0
,

Windows NT 3.51 Windows NT 3.51 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It is the third version of Windows NT and was released on May 30, 1995, eight months following the release of Windows NT ...

before v3.0.0
and Windows 3.X
Before v1.3.0
. * Support for multiple platforms (

IA-32 IA-32 (short for "Intel Architecture, 32-bit", commonly called i386) is the 32-bit version of the x86 instruction set architecture, designed by Intel and first implemented in the 80386 microprocessor in 1985. IA-32 is the first incarnation of ...

, x64 and

IA-64 IA-64 (Intel Itanium architecture) is the instruction set architecture (ISA) of the Itanium family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors. The basic ISA specification originated at Hewlett-Packard (HP), and was subsequently implemented by Intel in col ...

) in a single binary.

ARM64 AArch64 or ARM64 is the 64-bit extension of the ARM architecture family. It was first introduced with the Armv8-A architecture. Arm releases a new extension every year. ARMv8.x and ARMv9.x extensions and features Announced in October 2011, ...

is also supported. * Supports creation of a single EXE to install programs for easy

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" o ...

distribution (MSI support requires third-party products) * Supports disk spanning * Customizable setup types, for example, "full", "minimal", and "custom" * Complete uninstall capabilities * Integrated support for DEFLATE, bzip2, and LZMA file compression * Support for comparing file version information, replacing in-use files, shared file counting, registering DLL/OCXs and type libraries, and installing

font In movable type, metal typesetting, a font is a particular #Characteristics, size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "Sort (typesetting), sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of ...

s * Creation of shortcuts, including in the Start Menu and on the desktop * Creation of registry and INI file entries * Integrated scripting engine based on Pascal Script * Support for multilingual installs * Support for passworded and encrypted installs * Silent install and uninstall * Supports

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

and right-to-left languages

References

External links

* *{{github, jrsoftware/issrc, Inno Setup
The Inno Setup Extensions Knowledge Base
(offline, link to archived page)

- An extensive review of Inno Setup (offline, link to archived page)
Lexpa ISVS - Inno Setup add-in for Visual Studio
(offline, link to archived page)
Inno Setup reporting via Google Analytics
- How can developers can see installation statistics of Inno Setup via Google Analytics. Free installation software Free software programmed in Delphi Windows-only free software Software that uses Scintilla Software using the BSD license Pascal (programming language) software

History

Features

Key features

See also

References

External links