Professional Software Packing

I bet that there was a time when you wondered how developers actually created their setup files, which we all use whenever we install an application. Tarma Installer is such a piece of software and it has been specially created so that it can do all the things you need in order to create a software package that can install itself on any computer or other mobile and portable device, no matter if it's a 32 or 64 bit system or even Linux or MacOS.

Information such as Eula or system requirements and license agreements are always available before the actual software installation so that you know if you really need said app or if the PC can use it. Tarma Installer allows you to create and customize every aspect of the product information that your program has to offer – product name, version, publisher along with other support info can be customized by filling out the fields in the Product Identification window.

The best part about completing these fields is that you will see different environment variables that are places within the "< >" brackets. These global variables of Tarma Installer can be replaced all over the system with the expressions that you want to use. For instance, if you replace <Publisher> with the name of your company, this variable will be changed with the new entry all across the setup stub. If your software supports multiple language definitions, you can allow the user to choose the default language of the software before actually running it.

The second most important part of Tarma Installer is the Installation Contents section, which contains the features and components that will be added during the installation process. Different assemblies can be configured and added to a specific path on the host computer so that no matter the PC running your software, it will always be able to call any function or file from a predefined location created during the implementation process. This feature is vital in keeping the integrity of the software no matter the host PC.

For most applications it is necessary to tweak the registry every once in a while so that different arguments can be changed in order to make the software behave normally. These values are usually written and rewritten during the launch of an application or they just use a specific set of registry keys and values that no other application does. This way they ensure that no other thread is using their resources and only one application has the permission to read and write different resources. Tarma Installer provides you with the ability to customize the location of the used registry files along with their install and remove action so that, in case you remove the software at any time, the registry keys will also be removed.

Software developers have been encouraged for a long time to start saving their settings in registry key, but sometimes a properly configured .ini file can make a difference, and don't think that Tarma Installer has forgotten about this. It even gives you the privilege of managing different attributes such as its alias and path location.

An amazing feature that you can take advantage of when using Tarma Installer is that you can completely manage the services that you would like to use. For instance, you can set up a LocalSystem or NetworkService account that runs its own process or even kernel driver and set it to automatically start with each run of the software. This way you can make use of specially designed drivers or other services that the default configuration of the OS doesn't support.

From the Installation Content you can choose to configure the MIME types, but only if your software needs to register different files over the Internet. MIME configuration can include different SMTP configurations or other TCP/IP related settings that have to be enabled or accessed for the registration process to work properly. This connection needs to be secure in order to avoid any hackings while performing a validation process or receiving a product key. This is why you can use an encryption algorithm provided by Tarma Installer such as SHA or AES.

You may think that installing a new piece of software is only about hitting the Next and Finish buttons, but in fact there are a series of action sequences that need to be processed before any files are even copied into the host system. A list of these actions is available in Tarma Installer and the best part is that it is fully configurable. If you want to save time in the installation process, just choose the actions that are critical to the best performance of the installed software and discard the rest. This way, you can ensure that no unnecessary registry values are checked and rechecked for no reason, slowing down the installation process. This feature can prove useful especially when packing small projects that don't require a lot of attention to registries or don't use system services and drivers.

All the installer dialogs created by Tarma Installer are fully customizable. What is surprising is that every aspect of the dialog form can be customized to satisfy any demand. From the event handlers to the layout design, you have complete access to every dialog pop-up and its content. Even the progress bar that indicates the installation ration can be changed to your liking. The form customization reminds of the Visual Studio development platform that has the same type of window content manipulation, only that, in the case of Tarma, we’re talking about a much lower scale, though with the same intuitive visual customization.

What would an installer be without its personalized icon set? Any icon that you have already prepared for the current software can be added to the installation pack as long as it is under an .ico file extension. Any number of icons can be added for different file types. For instance, if you would like to change the default .txt icon, you can go ahead and replace it with one that better suits your needs.

When it comes to creating your own software installation pack, from the setup stub to the installation content, Tarma Installer gives you the ability to fully customize every aspect of the installation wizard and the path of the installed files and registry keys. With this app you have full control over the setup files and the installation wizard.