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Instructions for installing and activating InstallShield Limited Edition for Visual Studio

InstallShield Limited Edition can be integrated into the following editions of Visual Studio: Professional, Premium, and Ultimate. Note that Visual Studio Express Edition does not support integration with InstallShield Limited Edition.

Getting Started Building Your Installation Project

Need help getting started building your installation project? Get helpful tips on building installation projects with InstallShield Limited Edition. You can also access technical white papers with best practices for working with Windows Installer. And to help you get started, you can watch this 5-minute video to see how to build an MSI installation project in minutes with InstallShield Limited Edition.

Support for InstallShield Limited Edition for Visual Studio

Technical Support is provided exclusively via a private community forum dedicated to this product. This forum is monitored by Flexera Software Support Engineers, and response times are typically within 48-72 hours. No phone or email support is available at this time.

If you opted in to access this private support forum during the product registration process, and you do not currently have a Flexera Software community account, you should have received a separate email containing your login credentials and the specific URL. If you have an existing Flexera Software community account, it has been granted access to the private community forum. If you cannot access the private community forum or did not opt in during the registration process, please click here so an account can be created or your existing account can be updated to give you access to this forum.

Are your installation requirements more complex?

InstallShield Limited Edition for Visual Studio replaces the functionality provided by the Visual Studio Installer tool. It provides a subset of the world-class functionality found in our more advanced InstallShield editions. To evaluate these other InstallShield products, download an evaluation from the InstallShield evaluation page.

If your installation requirements evolve beyond its capabilities, consider upgrading to one of the more advanced InstallShield editions:

• InstallShield Premier Edition
• InstallShield Professional Edition
• InstallShield Express Edition

The table below highlights some of the functionality differences among the four editions. Please visit www. for more details.

Feature Highlight Comparison of InstallShield Editions

	Premier	Professional	Express	Limited Edition for Visual Studio
Create Microsoft? App-V? Installations - Now Included with Premier! Build both physical and virtual application packages from the same build process. Includes new support for App-V 5.0.
Virtualization Suitability Testing Ensure applications are compatible with enterprise application virtualization technologies, such as Microsoft App-V, VMware? ThinApp? and Citrix? XenApp?.
Automate Installing Windows Roles and Features Avoid the risk of manual tasks by automatically installing Windows roles and features with an application's installation.
Microsoft? PowerShell? Support - Run PowerShell Scripts from Suite/Advanced UI Projects Streamline server configuration tasks by running PowerShell scripts - the enterprise scripting language of choice.
Simplify Multi-Tier Installations Use multi-tier installation templates to deploy web/server applications as a single cloud-ready package.
Windows 8? Validation Testing Validate installations against Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 best practices from Microsoft.
Windows 8 Start Screen Icon Pinning Define the application shortcuts that are pinned to the Windows 8 start screen, delivering a clean first impression for the end-user.
Updated Advanced UI Designer Create contemporary install experiences using new Wizard design capabilities.
Create Pure 64-Bit Installations Deploy 64-bit applications using 64-bit installations that support Windows Server configurations where WoW64 has been disabled.
Hybrid Cloud Deployments Microsoft? SQL Azure? database scripting capabilities enable hybrid cloud SQL deployments.
Microsoft? Windows? 8 and Windows Server? 2012 Includes support for Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.
Microsoft? Visual Studio? 2012 Support Includes support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.
Advanced Wizard Page Editor and Redesigned Wizard Pages Provides an entirely new end-user interface with redesigned built-in wizard pages and a new wizard page editor.
Automatic Checking for Installer Updates and Patches Automatically checks and downloads updates and patches at run-time.
Suite Installation Enhancements Enhanced Suite/Advanced UI project type provides more capabilities to bundle multiple products together into a single, unified suite installation.
Microsoft? System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Support Enables Software Producers to provide required deployment metadata to their Enterprise customers.
PowerShell Support Enables Software Producers to streamline installation scripting requirements.
Suite Installations With the new InstallShield Suite Project type, multiple products can be easily bundled together into a single, unified suite installation..
Installation Streaming Installation Streaming reduces the downloading wait time required before installation can begin.
Installation Collaboration The InstallShield Collaboration add-on has been significantly enhanced to better support distributed, collaborative installation development.
Build Events InstallShield eliminates the need for you to manage external script files by integrating new pre- and post-build events with the InstallShield build process.
Multilingual Support Present installation text in up to 35 languages.
Standalone Build System Maintain a clean build machine by using only the part of InstallShield that compiles the installations.
InstallShield Best Practices Validation Suite Avoid common installation issues.
Merge Module Projects Merge Module Projects now include built-in support for IIS, text file changes, and XML file changes.
Automation Interface Support for Setting the Setup.exe Required Execution Level The InstallShield automation interface lets you configure the required execution level for Setup.exe. The required execution level is the minimum level required by your installation's Setup.exe file for running the installation (the setup launcher, any InstallShield prerequisites, and the .msi file) on Windows Vista and later platforms.
64-Bit Application Support New functionality gives developers more power to deploy applications on 64-bit systems.
Unicode InstallScript Support Build InstallScript installations that support multiple languages in runtime strings, registry entries, dialog boxes, and more.
Enhanced Script Editor New auto-completion functionality increases developer efficiency by reducing the time spent on typing code and helps eliminate typographical code errors.
Expiring Setup Launchers Prevent your end users from installing outdated versions of applications.
Industry-Standard InstallScript Achieve maximum flexibility in your installations.
Dialog Editor Modify the layout of existing end-user dialogs, create new custom dialogs, and more.
Patch Creation Build updates and patches for your products.
Setup Prerequisite Editor Easily control prerequisite restart behavior and source locations.
String Editor View Control the localizable text strings displayed at run time with this spreadsheet-like table.
Text File Changes View Configure search-and-replace actions for content in text files to be modified at run time.
Unicode Support Improve multi-language installation development.
XML Support Save time by quickly testing XML configuration changes to installation projects.
Standalone Build Add-On InstallShield provides a Standalone Build add-on that enables installation developers to maintain a clean build system by using the part of InstallShield that builds the installations, plus any redistributables included in the installations.	5 Free Licenses	1 Free License
Standalone Build Licensing Changes Standalone Build licenses come with InstallShield Premier and Professional Editions, and more are available for purchase.	5 Free Licenses	1 Free License
Specify Custom Icon and Version Resource Properties Modify the icon and version resource properties to match your company and product branding.			Partial
Billboard Support for Custom Branding Display Adobe Flash billboards and other graphic files during the install process.			Limited
Install Websites Deploy Websites to IIS 8.			1 Website	1 Website
Install Windows Services Install new Windows services along with your application.
Application Tagging InstallShield is the only strategic installation development solution that creates ISO 19770-2 software identification tags as part of the installation development process.
COM Extraction InstallShield supports a new monitoring method for COM extraction.
.NET Framework 4.5 and Other Prerequisites Have installers check for and install required applications and system components during install time.
Integration with Microsoft Team Foundation Server Use the Visual Studio IDE to effectively manage, compile, and build Visual Studio and InstallShield projects in a single environment.
Predefined System Searches New searches for .NET Framework 4.0, SQL Server 2008 Express SP1, and Adobe Reader 9 check if the required component is installed on the target system and take appropriate action.
Specify Folders for InstallShield Prerequisite Searches This enhancement makes it easy for your development team to share prerequisites and store them in source code control.
Project Assistant Jumpstart a project by using a simplified set of views.
Support for Digital Signatures Save time by digitally signing all your files at build time.
Easily Run Custom Actions Schedule a custom action to run at precisely the right moment in your installation.