Install your Visual Basic program with Visual Installer

Our setup tool Visual Installer has powerful built-in support for creation of installation programs for Visual Basic projects. If you develop software with Microsoft Visual Basic you can use Visual Installer to make a setup package for your application. Visual Installer is suitable for distribution of both commercial and non-commercial applications.

Supports Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Basic .NET (2002-2012)
Visual Installer supports Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Basic .NET (2002-2012). If you develop .NET applications you can let Visual Installer check that the end-user has the correct version of .NET Framework installed before the installation starts.

More information
You can read more about Visual Installer and Visual Basic on this page:
> Visual Installer can create a setup package for your Visual Basic project

How to install files in the correct folder using Visual Installer

As described in this blog post, there exist two Program Files folders in a 64 bit computer with a 64 bit Windows. One folder is used as a storage place for 32 bit programs and the other folder is used as a storage place for 64 bit programs. And it is important that your program files are installed in the correct folder in a 64 bit system, otherwise there is a risk that your program will not function as expected.

Windows in different languages
If you create an application that may be installed in non-English versions of Windows it is important to know that the name of the Program Files folder may be different compared to the English version of Windows. For example in a Spanish version of Windows the name of the Program Files folder is Archivos de programa. In a Spanish 64 bit Windows, where 32 bit and 64 bit program files / binary files also must be placed in different folders, there will exist the following two folders on the user’s hard disk:

C:\Arquivos de Programas : For 64 bit files
C:\Arquivos de Programas (x86) : For 32 bit files

This can be compared with the folders in an English 64 bit Windows:

C:\Program Files : For 64 bit files
C:\Program Files (x86) : For 32 bit files

(more examples of localized folder names is available in this article on our web site.)

Use an environment variable
It is impossible to handle all of the above combinations by hard-coding the folder path to the Program Files folder. We also advise against any tries to do so. Instead you should use an environment variable in Visual Installer that has the name %PROGRAMFILES to handle this. By placing this variable in the beginning of a folder path, for example like this:

%PROGRAMFILES\SamLogic\Visual Installer

the %PROGRAMFILES variable will be changed to correct folder path, regardless of the bitness of the program files / Windows and regardless of the language of the Windows. This replacement will occur during the setup process in the user´s computer.

Easier to select a variable in Visual Installer 2012
In Visual Installer 2012 (version 9.5.15 or later) it is easier to select correct variable to the main folder of the setup project. We have added a button to the right of the Main folder text box:

If you click on this button (the button with three dots) the dialog box below will be opened:

Via this dialog box you can choose and include the %PROGRAMFILES variable, or another relevant variable, to the main folder of your installation project in an easy way.

How Visual Installer handles 64 bit folders in Windows

In a 64 bit computer with 64 bit Windows installed there exists two Program Files folders and two System folders. The reason to this is that 32 bit binary files and 64 bit binary files must be placed in different folders. When you distribute and install a program it is important that you install your files in correct folders. 64 bit binary files must be installed in 64 bit folders and 32 bit binary files must be installed in 32 bit folders, otherwise your program may not work. It is not necessary to install data files with 64 or 32 bit data in specific folders; this is only important when binary / executable files are installed (for example EXE files and DLL files).

Our setup tool SamLogic Visual Installer handles all this automatically if you specify the bitness for your setup project in the 32/64 bit tab in the Setup options dialog box in the editor, and uses the %PROGRAMFILES and %SYSDIR variables when you specify destination folders for your installaton files.

The %PROGRAMFILES variable can be used in the Main folder text box in the File list tab in the Visual Installer editor. The picture below shows an example of usage:

And if a file should be installed to the System folder in Windows, you can choose the System directory (%SYSDIR) option in the Destination folder dialog box, as shown below:

If you use these variables in the way described above, your files will always be installed to correct folders in the system.

More information
More information about 32 and 64 bit folders is available in this article on our web site:
> Windows 64-bit: The ‘Program Files (x86)’ and ‘SysWOW64’ folders explained

Visual Installer can show visually when a license key is correct

A useful feature in Visual Installer is the possibility to show visually for the user when he/she enters correct license key in the License Key setup dialog box. The user can see that the license key is correct before he/she presses the Next button. The picture below shows how it may look like:

As soon as the correct license key has been entered in the License Key dialog box, the text color of the license key is changed to green and a green check mark is shown to the right of the entered license key. This will simplify for the user when he/she for example enters a license key that is printed on a label.

This option can be turned on and off
You can turn on and off this option in Visual Installer’s editor. To turn this option on/off, open the Dialog boxes tab in the editor and click on the “” button to the right of the License key option. Click thereafter on the More options button. In the dialog box that now is shown, you can turn this option on and off.

Social media support in CD-Menu Creator (Facebook, Twitter etc.)

Our menu interface designer tool CD-Menu Creator supports now social media like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. You can include one or more logotypes for social media in a menu interface (for example a Facebook logotype), and when the end-user clicks on a logotype your social media page is opened in the end-user’s web browser.

With this built-in functions in CD-Menu Creator can connect a menu interface for a CD, DVD or USB flash drive with social media like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ in an easy way.