I. Run command(s) before/after installation/uninstallation:
This option lets you execute up to 2 commands before or after the Setup process has been finished, before or after Uninstallation (the "before.." commands can only be used if you are using user-defined destination directories). That way you can display ReadMe files, execute your main application, run help after setup, execute configuration tools or do other things your installation or uninstallation requires - just select them from the list and combine them with a command, if necessary! For each definition you can also define a status message which will be displayed in a small box at the top-left of the screen and inform the user about what's going on if the installation runs under Windows 95. Please note that filenames are evaluated case-sensitive, they have to be entered exactly as listed in Step #2. The safest method to prevent problems is to select your preferred file from the pulldown list.
Parameters: please note that support of parameters might work only correctly if your filename doesn't contain spaces.
Examples for entered commands and parameters:
Notepad.exe YourFile.txt if you want to display YourFile.txt after setup
MyApp.exe if you want to execute MyApp.exe after setup
RegSvr32.exe Yours.ocx registers the file Yours.ocx (if you don't want to use INF-Tool's integrated option for that).
GrpConv.exe /s recreate Windows' default folders
Some commands might require that you add the appropriate Directory-ID to tell Windows where to run your command(s) or file(s) from - you can find a detailled list of available Directory-ID's here in the Tips helpfile (reg'd users).
Registered version:
The unregistered demo version of INF-Tool only allows one command to be executed after setup.
II. Available Options for your Distribution Package:
INF-Tool lets you fine-tune everything for your distribution package. At the options screen, you can tell INF-Tool to apply the following features:
Password for your self-extracting Installer
This is currently only supported for ZIP compression. The user will have to enter the correct password, otherwise the distributed files won't be uncompressed or installed. After 3 incorrect tries (case sensitive), the setup program will terminate.
Use your preferred icon for the self-extracting setup program
You can define your own icon for the setup program! INF-Tool was the first setup program worldwide offering this feature and didn't ever force you to use the Windows setup product logo or symbols the creators of the setup software forced you to use. So, select any 32x32 pixels icon with 16 colors (typically 766 bytes large) and tell INF-Tool to use it. Voila!
Use your own dialog texts, license information and title text for your self-extracting setup
All those text definitions are optional. License information can be defined as plain text file (*.txt), you could use LicTempl.txt as template for your own license text if you like. The "About" text will be displayed as intro and basic information text which will be displayed in the main window if the user runs your created setup program. You could use AbtTempl.txt as suggested template for this configurable textfile.
If you would like to avoid your INF-Tool registration data to be displayed after the user clicks the "Info" button at the end of setup, simply check the "Hide Info button" option. Your license info will still be packed into the setup program, but hidden from the end user.
The special INF-Tool option to "Avoid predefined prompts" (prompt-less installation) will skip any unnecessary requirement for your end users to press or click any buttons. The only dialog that might remain in your self-extracting setup is the license window (if you defined a license text) and the prompt for the destination directory (if you defined a user-defined destination directory with prompts in the Professional version). Activating this feature would even allow you to create installation batch jobs!
Create a disk-spanning ("splitted") setup package
INF-Tool lets you fully configure the filesize if you want INF-Tool to create a disk-spanning installer. For self-extracting packages this will automatically split your setup program into several parts with a EXE file (of the configured name) as the first part. Your user just has to run this EXE program and the installer will automatically request the next disks to be entered (or the next parts to be supplied to continue with setup).
You could, of course, also check this option for plain ZIP or CAB compressed archives: in this case, the archives are simply splitted into the parts of your configured size and your user can join them back into the full archive by entering copy /b <first file>+<second file>+<third part>+.... . This would require more 'flexibility' of your end user than the method described above, but could also make sense in certain situations. INF-Tool lets you decide.
Select the language of your self-extracting setup program
INF-Tool comes with a cool number of supported languages you can use for your self-extractor. Simply select it from the pulldown list.
Make setup program unrecognizeable for other unpackers
If you want to prevent Johnny Hacker from digging around in your distributed setup program using unpacking tools or archive managers, simply check this option. INF-Tool will then apply some action to hide the contents from such tools, even if you didn't apply a password to your setup package.
Digitally sign your created self-extracting setup program
