Flexera Software Introduces InstallShield 2011; Furthers Lead as World's Top Software Installation Development Solution for Windows Applications

Resulting from a longstanding collaboration with Microsoft Corp., InstallShield continues to be a leader in the industry with its support for the latest Microsoft technologies and platforms. InstallShield 2011:

• Gives Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 developers the convenience of authoring professional installations for all application types inside the same Visual Studio 2010 interface they use to develop their products, as well as the power to reliably deploy applications targeting the Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Saves developers' time by including .NET Framework prerequisites to check for and install required applications and system components
• Provides enhanced support with Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server when used within Visual Studio 2010, enabling developers to integrate InstallShield projects with Team Foundation Server version control and manage changes
• Allows developers to use Team Foundation Server Build to compile and build InstallShield projects along with Visual Studio solutions
• Gives developers the power to use Visual Studio Team Server Team Explorer to configure, schedule and queue builds for InstallShield projects together with Visual Studio solution builds
• Enhances 64-bit support so developers can maintain a single installation project to support 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, repackage 64-bit applications to create MSI installations and create 64-bit App-V packages to deploy virtual applications on 64-bit systems

"Visual Studio is the development environment of choice for developers of all kinds," said Jason Zander, corporate vice president of Visual Studio at Microsoft. "Likewise, InstallShield 2011 should be an installation development environment of choice for Visual Studio users, ensuring that Visual Studio applications of any kind can be professionally installed and work with the latest Microsoft technologies and platforms."

InstallShield 2011 also includes enhancements to simplify installation development, including:

• A new licensing option for the popular Standalone Build module provides clarity over usage and helps customers implement continuous installation builds into their agile development environment. Customers can also buy additional licenses of Standalone Build as an add-on rather than purchasing the full IDE license for meeting build requirements. With support for a concurrent license model for Standalone Build, customers can support advanced infrastructure needs and use Standalone Build in build farms with dynamic virtual machines
• Unicode InstallScript support which enables InstallScript users to provide a better end-user installation experience for multi-language products and improve the runtime performance
• Enhanced Script Editor with auto completion increases developer efficiency by reducing the time spent on typing code and helps avoid typographical errors in the code
• Build events (available in the Premier Edition only) that eliminate the need for developers to manage external script files by integrating new pre- and post-build events with the InstallShield build process
• New settings in the Releases view to modify the icon and version resource properties for setup and update executable to match company and product branding
• New Prerequisites tab on the Options dialog to specify folders to search for InstallShield prerequisites files (.prq), making it easier for teams to share prerequisites and store prerequisites in source code control
• The ability to set an expiration date and message for setup launchers to prevent customers from installing outdated versions of applications

After a thorough beta test process, customers have acknowledged tremendous value in this new release:

• "InstallShield continues to prove that they are the leader in the market for installation development. Constantly updating features, providing support with short turnaround times and staying integrated with the latest tools such as Visual Studio 2010 has kept us onboard with their software. We look forward to what they have to offer in future versions. Thank you!" - JP Williams, Buildmaster at Accusoft Pegasus
• "I have been using InstallShield since version 3. I am always excited about a new release because each one is better than the last in big and small ways. InstallShield 2011 has numerous big enhancements and a specific small one that will make my job much easier. The ability to specify a search path for InstallShield prerequisites will allow me to refer to them directly from our Source Code control location. I now won't have to worry about copying them to the InstallShield prerequisites folder." - Mark Hanson, Software Engineer Advanced at Siemens
• "The Code Project's vast developer community honors excellence in dev tools with these awards. We're happy to see the community recognize time-tested and proven products like InstallShield." - Jeff Hadfield, President at The Code Project.

"InstallShield 2011 delivers significant value by supporting the latest Microsoft technologies and platforms and a wide variety of enhancements that further simplify Windows installation development," said Maureen Polte, director of product management at Flexera Software. "Our continued focus is to ensure that InstallShield delivers the capabilities that developers need to streamline quality and professional installation development for any type of application."

About InstallShield
For more than 20 years, InstallShield has been the most popular and trusted solution for Windows software installations, used by virtually every major software company in the world. InstallShield makes it easy for developers to author reliable Windows Installer (MSI) and InstallScript installations and App-V virtual packages for Windows platforms, including Windows 7, keeping their customers happy and support costs down.

You can download a free trial version of InstallShield 2011 here.