What's new in Ghost Installer ============================= Symbol "-" - fixed bugs, "+" - new features, "*" - changes. Version 1.62 (from 12/20/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Checking of free disk space was not made when you built distributive package. + CompressionLevel parameter has been added to a gin-file. You can change it from 1 (min. compression) to 7 (max. compression), by default 7. * When installing files with equal versions, its dates are compared now too. - "Can't extract presetup files!" error message was raised at starting distributive package, which contained very large amount of files (about 1500 and above). * CRC checking is removed now, becouse it is very long time process with the large packages. Now package size is checked at starting instead CRC checking. - Free disk space checking was very long time when package contained very large amount of files. Version 1.61 (from 11/17/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Files without attribures were not put to the package in some cases. - Message windows were centered from all screen, not from working area. - Bugfixes in background window paint function. + New variable - Office97Templates. Version 1.6 (from 10/20/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Completely re-designed the compression/uncompression mechanism. The engine of the installer does not depend on a specific compression algorithm any longer, so the algorithm can be replaced easily. By now Microsoft CAB format with the LZX compression system is used (the compression is much stronger than ZIP and a bit better than RAR). * The encryption scheme is now independent from the compression algorithm too. Right now the encryption standard GOST 28147-89 with 256 bit keys is used. + Added the possibility to register out-of-process COM servers. - In case of execution of an external program the main window of the setup could be closed or moved. * The intro screen appears prior to the consistency check of the package. * RichEdit control is used in dialogs DLG_LICENSE and DLG_README, so you can provide text in RTF format. + Added the possibility to set background color in dialogs DLG_LICENSE and DLG_README. (Use parameters LicenseBackColor and ReadmeBackColor in the Display section of the gins.ini file.) + Added a new parameter UninstallKey to the Config section of gins.ini. This parameter determines the name of the registry key, where the uninstall information of the application will be stored. - When the InstallPath parameter was not set (and was not used in the actual installation), the installer reported insufficient disc space. + Added a parameter MinOSVersion (Config section of the gins.ini file) which defines the windows version required to run the application. + Added the possibility to set the window mode (normal, maximized or minimized) and an additional comment while a shortcut is being created. - When a shortcut was created for a second time with a different icon, windows kept the old icon in the cache and presented it. - If uninstall was started from an open Programs folder, the folder itself was not removed. - If the InstallPath parameter contained a folder name with more than one dot character (like "My.Program.1.0"), under Windows 95 the installer reported insufficient disc space. * A new parameter was added to the AddReg section, to define the type of the variable to be stored in the registry. NOTE: variables beginning with # don't need to be numeric any longer. - In the section RegVariables the numeric parameters (REG_DWORD) could not be read. + The binary variables (REG_BINARY) can be added to or retrieved from the registry (AddReg, RegVariables). + Now it is possible to check, if the application to be installed is already running. Use parameters CheckWindow and CheckMutex in the gins.ini file. * Due to recent changes, following parameters are no longer in use and can be removed safely: a). section VersionInfo in the gins.ini file; b). file build.ini c). variables UpdateVersionInfo, Compression and RarLock in the gins.ini. * The design of the dialogs has been changed slightly. NOTE: The size of the gins.bmp is now 480x64, so if you are using your own Picture, you will need to resize it. - When a non-RAR compression with flag NO_LOG was used, file could not be uncompressed, if the destination directory did not exist. + Added a parameter RemoveOldReferences to gins.ini file. This parameter allows to remove all references to the old version of the application, if the new one is about to be installed into the same directory. - If the Internet Information Server was not installed on the destination computer the variables IIS-WWWRoot and IIS-Scripts were empty. Now they will be set to point to "%BootDrive%\wwwroot" and "%BootDrive%\wwwroot\scripts". + Added a parameter MainTitle, to set the title of the main window to any value, not just to ProgramName. + If the destination directory, chosen in the dialog DLG_DIR already exists, the installer will ask for a user confirmation. + Added a possibility to remove files during the installation (section DelFiles in the setup scenario file). + The windows system colors can be used in all the color settings. Version 1.52 (from 07/17/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Integrity checks are not performed, if package is located on the CD-ROM or network drive and its size more then 1 Mb. + Parameter RarLock is added to gin-file in section Config. + Parameter AutoSelectLanguage is added to configuration file gins.ini. Version 1.51 (from 07/10/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + Installation flag REGISTER_SERVER can register type libraries now. + Parameter LanguageName is added to lng-file in section Strings. - During uninstall font in Windows 9x it was not removed from fonts list (but file was removed). - If dialog name was written wrong in PreInstallDialogSequence or PostInstallDialogSequence, installer hanged at this dialog showing stage. Version 1.5 (from 06/13/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + New variables: ApplicationData, QuickLaunch, IIS-WWWRoot, IIS-Scripts, Office97, Office2000. + Now it is possible to disable drawing dialog titles (ShowDialogTitle parameter). - If you press close window button and then "No" button, the dialog with question about cancelling installation reappeared. - If there were "." symbols in a ExeName parameter of the gin-file, a Build utility dropped all symbols after the ".". * The background window fills only its working area, not the full screen. * During RAR-comression the GUI-version of WinRAR is used (WinRAR.exe). * ATTENTION! DefaultInstallPath parameter has been deleted. To set the default installation path you must define the "InstallPath" variable. + You can read variables values from the registry and ini-files (RegVariables and IniVariables sections). + You can show a logo bitmap at presetup files unpacking stage. - Installer crashed while copying external files after showing version conflict dialog. - Version conflict dialog was not centered. + When distribution package starts it performs an integrity check first. + Now it is not necessary to create the directory structure of the package - you can specify to the Build utility, where it can found some files (FileLinks section of gin-file). * File unpacking is considerably faster than before when using RAR-compression. + You can use environment variables as simple Ghost Installer's variables. - UnGins.exe size was not used during calculation of necessary disk space. + Parameter ExtraDiskSpace is added in gins.ini. It defines, how much additional disk space is required beyond installation requirements. Version 1.41 (from 05/17/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Quotation marks in the section PreRunApp are processed incorrectly. * All installer's text files are replaced with one hlp-file. - When specified gin-file did not exist, Build said "Presetup directory is not exists!" + Parameter "DefaultCompression" was added to the build.ini. + When deleting hlp-file the appropriate gid- and fts-files are deleted too. * Variable names are now case-insensitive. Version 1.4 fix 2 (from 05/05/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * The DLG_LANGUAGE dialog now shows only those languages supported by the operating system. - Adjusting installation script to the installed Windows version does not work (does not loaded script files except *.ins). Version 1.4 fix 1 (from 04/19/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Dialogs are placed incorrectly when ShowMainWindow=0. Version 1.4 (from 04/17/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + New variables: BDE, Date, ProgramGroup, LangStr. - RunApp section processing did not switch to the selected language. + List of languages, supported by Ghost Installer, was increased (now 105 languages are supported). + Possible to use installation flag DONT_OVERWRITE for registry modification, ini-file creation/modification or at shortcut creation. - Installation process passed incorrectly when installing to the root directory. - Files without extensions were not matched with the mask "*.*". - In Windows 9x after the installation began, in some cases the Escape key did not work in console applications. + The background window of the setup program now supports bitmaps. + Possible to assign a location of dialogs. - In the versions 1.3 and 1.31 copying external files did not work (installation flag EXTERNAL_FILE). + Possible to fill the background window with a bitmap, not only gradient. + It is possible to define, for which Windows versions the distribution package is intended. * The installation script can adjust to a Windows version more precisely (file extensions ".9x", ".95", ".98", ".nt", ".nt4", ".2k"). - It was impossible to set registry parameter, at which name there was a symbol "\". Now it is possible to set such parameter, if you include its name in quotation marks (single or double). * Languages list in the DLG_LANGUAGE dialog are sorted now. + Installing/uninstalling shared files are realized (installation flag SHARED_FILE). + Uninstaller is now multi-lingual. * Password checking is done in the DLG_PASSWORD dialog now, not during unpacking of encrypted files. + The ZIP compression algorithm was added (non-standard format). WinRAR is not needed for it. It is possible to choose compression algorithm. - If some file in the Presetup directory hasn't any attribute, it is not included to a distribution package. * If some parameter, adding to an ini-file, already exists, it will not added to an installation log-file. + New dialog (for choosing program group) - DLG_GROUP. * The "Yes" button in the DLG_LICENSE dialog is no longer the default now, so the user will not casually skip over this dialog. + During shortcut creation it's possible to specify a file with icon (and its number), and also a hotkey. + Added feature to specify necessity of rebooting after installation. + Added feature to cancel showing final dialog. + Added feature of writing to the HKEY_USERS registry key. + A button for creating directories was added in the Choose Installation Directory dialog. * ATTENTION! The formulation of a phrase about version conflict is changed to more suitable. So the meanings of buttons "Yes" and "No" is swapped. + The buttons "Yes to all" and "No to all" were added to the Version Conflict dialog. + The feature of deleting registry subkeys and parameters at installation was added. + Now you can execute an external applications immediately after unpacking presetup files (before dialogs are shown). + The feature of executing applications during uninstallation was added. + Now it is possible to cancel drawing the program name in a background window. + It is possible to choose a default font for all dialogs. Version 1.31 (from 02/22/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Quotation marks were processed incorrectly. Version 1.3 (from 02/21/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - The installer incorrectly processed localized file names. + Some documentation fixes and additions. * During file copying, replacement of an existing file by a new file does not occur, if they have equal versions and sizes. - If in path, where the log-file was created, there were no two or more directories, the installation interrupted. - In Windows 95 with build number less then 1111 (earlier then OSR2) at installation start there was a error "Insufficient free disk space!". - In Windows 95 shortcuts in folder "%CommonDesktop%" were not created. * Build utility now works with one parameter only - building configuration file. + Added the feature to set a password on the distribution package. + New dialog (for entering password) - DLG_PASSWORD. * File Gins.lng was removed. Each language is based in its own file, which is automatically added to the distribution package if necessary. + Added Danish translation. - If installation did not create any directories, during uninstallation the log-file was not deleted. - Fonts charset was not adjusted to chosen language. - If while creating a shortcut, a path to the object was surrounded with quotation marks, the shortcut was not created. * ATTENTION! Parameter in section "files copying" was removed. Now for storing file version information use the section "VersionInfo" in the configuration file "Gins.ini". + The Build utility can take files version information and put it to a VersionInfo section. - Uninstaller did not remove lines from ini-files. - When REGISTER_SERVER installation flag was used, the installation process failed to complete properly. - When a string parameter with an empty value was added to the registry, its value became equal to value of default parameter. - In Windows 9x an "in-use" file, locked by system, was not replaced if it had a long filename. * Processing of single and double quotation marks was changed. Version 1.2 (from 01/24/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - The installer worked incorrectly with large script files (greater than 64K), and uninstaller - with large log-files. * The principle of mask processing in files copying section is slightly changed. + The processing of the Escape key is added to the dialogs. + New installation flag - EXTERNAL_FILE (feature for copying external files which are not included in the distribution package). - From the documentation it wasn't clear where the text is stored for dialogs DLG_LICENSE and DLG_README. + Ukrainian translation added. - Installer did not work, if the directory for temporary files was removed. + In the file Languages.txt the list of available languages is extended. + Added the feature to assign a separate bitmap for any dialog. - If user answered "No" to the question "Replace a file by the earlier version?", the common installation indicator displayed the incorrect data. - If in a dialog sequence there was no DLG_DIR dialog, in parameter DefaultInstallPath were not processed variables. Version 1.11 (from 01/10/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - The common installation progress bar displayed incorrect data if the distribution package size was more than 1 MB. Version 1.1 (from 01/06/2000) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + New installation flags - REGISTER_FONT, DONT_ASK_USER, DONT_OVERWRITE. - Parameters with empty values were not added to the registry and ini-files. - While unpacking presetup files no disk space check was made. * The message window is now scaled depending on the text width. - In Windows NT the "Choose language" dialog only the standard language of operation system was normally displayed, but other languages were displayed by "?" symbols. * The minimal step of the installation indicator is about 1 KB now (instead one file, as it was earlier). + The installation indicator of a separate file was added. + New variables: SourcePath, Presetup, BootDrive. + Added feature of using masks in files copy section (there are some restrictions, see Manual.txt). + The feature of running external applications was added. * While defining variables (section Variables in the Gins.ini) it's possible to use other variables with any level of an enclosure. + Was added the feature to check, whether the user has administrator rights on the target computer. - The uninstaller was not deleting .pif shortcuts. Version 1.0 (from 12/20/1999) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First published version.