Hi, I realy don't know much about installshield and I need some help.

I have an installshield package for a program that was created by an old version of installshield, I want to convert it to a newer version of the installer so it could be installed on newer systems without problems (I'm using installshield x).

Here is what I've done so far: I used isdcc2 to decompile the setup.ins file and Unpacked the Cab files ( data1, _sys1, _user1 ) using i5comp with the files seperated according to the the source cab and file groups.

I also created a new project in installshield x and replaced the setup.rul file with the decompiled one.

I need to know what to do next, where to place the files I've extracted, other files I need to decompile etc..

any help, suggestions, tips are welcome Please help in any way you can.

There is another way to do this.

Just install it on a fresh machine with some installation monitors on to see what registry keys/shortcuts/services/files/COM servers are added into the system, then reproduce it in your new installshield project.

I'm aware of that, but since the package is old the only way to run it seems to be in safe mode and that poses a problem with runing the installation monitors.

can you suggest an installation monitor that will run in safe mode ?

Also as I said before my knowledge of installshield is very limited and I would like to recreate the original install as much as possible including install options like minimal install custom install etc..

If you get a new version of InstallShield (I think Wise does it as well), it will take a snapshot of your system before the installation, run the installer then take another snapshot. It then diffs the snapshots to produce an installation script, which will do exactly what you want. Best thing is, it's not a "monitor" tool so it won't interfere.

Thanks Silver I'll explore that option, but still if anyone has information that will help me recreate the installtion from the old files please post.

Silver, I have looked for the feature you mentioned but I can't find one that does that. The version I'm using is the newest most complete version of installshield, can you point out how you access that feture, or the exact name of it in installshield ?
Can you also tell me in what version of installshield did you see it ?

It's been a long while since I've done it (I actually had to do it for a contract I was working on), but here is a start: http://www.installshield.com/products/adminstudio/features/repackage.asp?source=

Look at the "Installshield Repackaging Wizard" screenshot on the right. The second option in the wizard is "Snapshot". Can't remember exactly how or what you need to do to get that working, but there's the proof it exists...

Regshot (http://wasm.ru/tools/17/regshot.zip) is fast and small, and runs in safe mode too... It can take a snapshot of registry and file systems before and after, and then compare them. It comes with sources too...

Regards, bilbo

Thanks Silver, I'll have to wait until I get adminstudio to check it out, what I have right now is installshield and adminstudio is a different product.

Thanks for the suggestion bilbo perhapse i'll give it a try, but I'm still looking for information on how to rebuild from the old files if anyone could help.