Free installer for your applications

If you are a software developer like me and you developed some applications at home that you want to provide to others it is a good idea to have an installer which makes it easier to distribute your software. Since installers are often quite expensively I would like to point you to a free application that I use.

The tool is called "Create Install Free" and is available as free but also as commercial version which provides some additional features which are related mainly with branding. This tool takes a folder which contains the files of your program and creates an executable file which basically copies your files to the directory specified by the user. Additionally it provides the possibility to add a short cut to Start -> Programs as well as a desktop short cut. Some other features are to add a license text which has to be accepted by the user, a readme text, an uninstaller, inserting keys into the registry and customizing the executable file symbol. An important feature is that you can select the installer language from a list of many languages to adjust it for your needs.

I used it for several projects and I can only suggest it. After all it is freeware so there is nothing that prevents you from trying it out.

Some screenshots:

Here you see the output settings where you can specify the folder, the name of the executable, the icon of the executable and the type of setup.



This screenshot shows the possibility of the tool to set up the installer language and the name of the application.



The dialog settings allow you to provide a readme and a license file which are shown to the user during installation. Additionally you can set up some properties which dialogs should be shown.



Here we see the Run settings which basically lets you specify which file should be started after installation.



This screenshot shows the uninstaller properties which gives you the ability to include an uninstaller to your application which should definitely be there.


Related links:
Homepage of Create Install Free