Installshield will create software packages which can be in msi or rpm etc.. Will Windows installer also create msi and rpm files? or is this a tool embedded in Windows operating system which is required to run msi file, is that correct? What i am saying we will create msi file by using install shield, then we will give it to the customer and they will install msi with the help of windows installer embedded in their operating systems and generate exe file, is that correct?
What is difference between installshield and windowsinstaller
installshieldwindows-installer
Best Answer
InstallShield (and others, such as Advanced Installer and InstallAware) are tools that help you as the developer create Windows Installation Packages (MSI files). Visual Studio also has the ability to produce MSI files as well, though some find that some features are lacking with the Visual Studio tool.
Wikipedia has a fairly nice article on the subject that you may find interesting.
Windows Installer is included in Windows Operating Systems.
The general idea is that you as the developer package your software (executable and other dependencies) inside an MSI file that the end-user can then use to install the product on their computers via Windows Installer.
There's a lot more to the subject as you'll find as you get more involved with creating, testing and debugging MSIs.