InstallShield is a proprietary
software tool
A programming tool or software development tool is a computer program that is used to software development, develop another computer program, usually by helping the developer manage computer files. For example, a programmer may use a tool called ...
for creating
installers or
software packages. InstallShield is primarily used for installing software for
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
desktop and server platforms, though it can also be used to manage software applications and packages on a variety of handheld and
mobile device
A mobile device or handheld device is a computer small enough to hold and operate in hand. Mobile devices are typically battery-powered and possess a flat-panel display and one or more built-in input devices, such as a touchscreen or keypad. ...
s.
Features
InstallShield generates a
.msi file which can be used on the destination computer in order to install the payloads from the source computer where it was created.
It is possible to specify questions, set prerequisites and registry settings that the user will be able to choose at the installation time.
Development
InstallShield was originally developed by The Stirling Group, a company founded in 1987 by Viresh Bhatia and Rick Harold, who had first met when they were computer science students at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
. Their first office was a small room in the basement of an old library building in
Roselle, Illinois. They were to market a geographic mapping software program, but it was never released.
By 1990, The Stirling Group was selling a package of six products called the SHIELD Series, including InstallShield:
In 1993, The Stirling Group moved into larger offices in
Schaumburg, Illinois
Schaumburg ( ) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, Cook and DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 78,723, making Schaumburg the most populou ...
and changed the company's name to Stirling Technologies, Inc. InstallShield became particularly well known after Microsoft endorsed it for use in
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...
, and by 1997 Stirling Technologies estimated that it was being used in 85 to 90 percent of all software products written for Windows.
Since 1996, the company operated under the InstallShield name until
Macrovision acquired the business in 2004 for $76 million in cash plus an additional $20 million based on meeting sales targets.
Limited versions of InstallShield were at various times bundled with popular software development packages such as
Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0,
Borland Delphi 2006, and
Borland C++Builder.
On 1 April 2008, the Macrovision Software Business Unit (including the InstallShield brand) was sold to private equity firm
Thoma Cressey Bravo, forming a new company called
Acresso Software.
In October 2009, Acresso Software changed its name to
Flexera Software.
In May 2020, Flexera rebranded its software monetization division focused on selling to software publishers as Revenera.
See also
*
List of installation software
References
External links
* {{Official website
Installation software
Utilities for Windows