installer creator

Frequently Asked Questions for Setup Factory

Setup Factory 8 is your best choice for creating rock-solid software installers, in a timely and efficient manner. Compared to other products, Setup Factory is easier to learn and faster to work with. Yet, it produces a professional setup.exe file that is smaller, quicker and more customizable than the high priced competitive tools.

Here are some answers to common questions about Setup Factory 8…

What’s New in Setup Factory 8?

Setup Factory 8 includes hundreds of improvements since v7.0 was released. There are dozens of little productivity boosting gems and tons of enhancements that make this major new version better than any other.

Who needs Setup Factory?

If you are creating software applications that need to be installed on your customer’s computers, you definitely need Setup Factory. But, it’s is not just for software developers. Anyone distributing files or data can benefit from using a professional installation builder. It makes it easy to deploy your data, ensure it arrives intact, create start menu and desktop icons, or any other system configurations you require.

What Can I do with Setup Factory?

With Setup Factory you can create professional, secure, full-featured installers. Setups created with Setup Factory are 100% self-contained; i.e. the setups do not require any external technologies to be installed. As well, because published setups are self-contained executable files, they are perfect for web downloads or CD/DVD distribution. You can use Setup Factory 8.0 to package up your software for distribution, or to securely package up internal documents to distribute to your sales-force. The possibilities are limitless.

Does Setup Factory 8 support Windows 7, Vista and XP?

Yes! Setup Factory 8 officially supports Windows 7, Vista and XP. In fact, installs created with Setup Factory can be used on any version of windows, from Windows 95 through Windows 7 and Server 2008. We work hard to ensure your installer is compatible with the widest range of Windows operating systems possible.

How easy is it to learn?

Setup Factory boasts an easy-to-use, task based visual design environment. When creating a new project for the first time, you will be presented with the New Project wizard, allowing you to create a fully functional setup in just minutes. Once you have a wizard-created project, it’s a snap to add new screens from the screen gallery, as well as customize existing ones. Adding additional files and folders to your project is just as easy through the intuitive drag-and-drop interface. And with hundreds of high-level actions available through the user-friendly action wizard, adding complex functionality has never been easier!

Do I have to be a programmer to use Setup Factory?

Absolutely not! Using the Project Wizard, even beginners can create a fully functional setup in just minutes. And with an intuitive user interface, customization is accomplished in the same point-and-click fashion.

Can I patch my software with Setup Factory?

Setup Factory was designed to package up a complete version of your software and install it on a user’s system. While this can certainly update a system to the latest release, it is not as efficient as using a dedicated patch builder. Our Visual Patch product is more suited for creating software patches.

Can I secure my installs with serial numbers?

Absolutely! Setup Factory has built-in support for serial number lists. You can generate random serial numbers within Setup Factory based on a structure you specify, or you can import a list of serial numbers from a text file. Then, simply add a pre-made or custom serial number screen to your setup, ensuring that it will not function without a valid serial number.

Can my setup check with my server to see if a serial number is valid?

Yes! Setup Factory includes various actions for interacting with a web server. Integrating your setups with a web-verification system has never been easier! Simply have your setup submit the given serial number to a web server, and choose how to continue based on the returned result.

Can I make my setups expire?

Yes! Setup Factory has built-in support for setup expiry. You can configure your setup to expire after it has been run a certain amount of times, after a specific date has passed, or both.

Can I make a setup that spans multiple disks?

Yes! Setup Factory can automatically split your setup file into either pre-determined or custom sized segments, perfect for distribution on media of any size.

Does Setup Factory require Windows Installer MSI services?

No. Setup Factory creates stand-alone, bullet proof setups that run on any PC using Windows 95B or higher. Setups created with Setup Factory are self-contained; they do not require any external technologies to run. With that in mind, Setup Factory can run any file supported by your user’s system, including Windows Installer MSI files — it just does not need or create them. If you would like to create MSI installers, please consider our MSI Factory product.

Does Setup Factory support installation components (packages)?

Yes! Thanks to the built-in support for packages, your setups can have as many (or as few) packages as you like. Create one setup that contains both required and optional components, and allow your user to choose which components are installed and which ones are not.

Can my setup download files from the web?

Yes! Setup Factory comes with a variety of built-in actions to interact with a web server. Thanks to the intuitive design environment and easy-to-use scripting language, your setups can be configured to download any files from your HTTP or HTTPS server. You can create a setup that downloads only the components to be installed, saving bandwidth costs.

Can Setup Factory work with registry values and INI files?

Yes! Setup Factory comes standard with easy-to-use actions for reading from and writing to the user’s registry as well as reading from and writing to INI files. As well, there are actions to determine if the user has the appropriate permissions to read from and/or write to the registry or to INI files.

Can I open my v7.0 Projects in Setup Factory 8?

Yes! Upgrading to Setup Factory 8 is completely hassle-free. Simply open up your Setup Factory 7.0 project file and go. That’s it! 

System Requirements

In order to build installers, a developer requires:

• Windows 7, Vista, or XP
• 1 GB RAM
• 1024×768 display resolution
• 5 GB free hard drive space

In order to run the setups, an end user requires:

• Windows 95/98/ME/NT4(SP6)/2000/XP/Vista/7/Server 2003/Server 2008
• 256 MB RAM
• 640×480 display resolution
• 100 MB free hard drive space + data space