DreamShield introdcution

created the topic: DreamShield introdcution
Introduction
A free deployment tool to create installer program for any .NET based applications but also dynamic updates from a web server. You can also publish directly your software to a web server with only a few clicks.
It’s mainly developed in C# but contains portions in C++.

DreamShield is a publishing tool through which it is possible to create installers to publish Microsoft .NET based applications. You can also choose whether to include the setup of the .NET Framework itself with your package for an easy distribution. It is possible to create setup then put them on a CD or to create a self-extracting archive with only one application in order to allow an easy downloading from a website.

With DreamShield you can install files, modify the registry, create shorcuts, register your files with gacutil, installutil, regsvr, and even run a Windows Installer based setup during the installation. There is also many possibilities to customize your setup through writing plugins or chose a skin to introduce your software with a good customer experience.

The installer has a full rollback possibilities in case of something going wrong and as a big improvement over many other freeware installers, DreamShield can create update for your product to modify a component, or automatically upgrade a product from one version to another.

If you have any problems or remarks, you can ask for help in your langage (english or french) in DreamShield’s forum

You can get previews of DreamShield here : Screenshots
And the documentation is located at this address : Documentation (French)
Note : even if the documentation is basically written in French, you can still use it in English via Google using this link : Documentation (Automatic translation)
Limitations
DreamShield is a free software and it cannot be sold in any way. But DreamShield can be used to create installation for free softwares, but also for commercial products. So even if your project is commercial you can use DreamShield to create the installation process and extend it with plugins to meet your requirements without paying any fees or being limited in any way as long as you don’t sell DreamShield itself.
You can also create commercial plugins for DreamShield with the limitation to not sell DreamShield itself. For any further questions you can contact me by mail at lukas.atharis at gmail dot com.
Features
General

* Wide variety of appearances (skins) available for the installer, with the possibility of creating new ones
* Editing the registry
* Creating shortcuts
* Creation of backups before overwriting files
* Creating backups before changing the registry keys
* Installations can be canceled
* Cancellation of an installation if an error is encountered (functionality based on the principle of rollBack RDBMS)
* Restoring backups if the installation is canceled
* Complete Uninstallation capabilities
* estoring files replaced during uninstallation
* Restore the registry keys replaced during uninstallation
* Installation components organized
* Detection of a previous installation with a GUID
* Automatic uninstallation if an older version of the same application is detected at a new facility
* Support GZIP, LZMA and deflate compression for the setup files, and 7z for the SFX
* Modification of installed components
* Possibility to change the icon of Setup.exe, StdSetup.exe and of the SFX
* Possibility of changing the image of the home page of the wizard (the little green computer screen)
* Possibility to create facilities that support multiple languages (French and English provided the basic ability to create new ones with files or . . ResX Resources)

Runtimes

* Automatic installation of Windows Installer 3.0 if necessary
* Possibility to choose the required version. NET Framework (from 2.0 to 3.5, with the SP1 or not) and automatically download it if necessary
* Possibility of calling InstallUtil, RegSrv and / or gacutil when installing or uninstalling .NET assemblies

Integration

* Quick start box in the start page of DreamShield
* Integrated browser to open DreamShield for online resources
* The IDE is DreamShield maintains automatically checking every 7 days if a new update (or new version) is available
* DreamShield projects can be converted from / to XML format
* Wizard to create standard installation project
* Wizard to create installation project from a Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 project, Express version supported

Advanced

* Possibility to publish an application with DreamShield on an ftp server
* Possibility to create updates
* Possibility to restrain the installation of a file to a specific version of Windows
* Possibility to restrain the execution of the setup process to a specific version of Windows (useful to create setup for a specific version of Windows)
* Possibility of replacing / deleting files locked by the system (if the installer detects one, it creates a temporary file and asks you to reboot to perform the replacement or deletion).
* Possibility to create plugins to extend the installer fonctionnaltiƩs in any of the languages supported by. NET Framework (2.0 or more)
* Ability to create custom pages for the installer, thanks to plugins (see DreamShield Miles for more informations)

Security

* DreamLocker: Ability to lock the installations with a password: You will be asked each time you run the installer and Archives facilities will be encrypted.
* Support for the UAC on Windows Vista

Rajesh Kumar
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