Inno Setup is a free installer for Windows programs. First introduced in 1997, Inno Setup today rivals and even surpasses many commercial installers in feature set and stability.

Features include a wizard interface, creation of a single EXE for easy online distribution. It supports the disk spanning, full uninstall capabilities, customizable setup types, integrated file compression. Also includes support for installing shared files and OCX’s, and creation of Start Menu icons, INI entries, and registry entries.

This program places no arbitrary limits on how many files, shortcuts, registry entries, etc. that you may include in an installation. However, keep in mind that Inno Setup does need memory for each entry in a script. For example, roughly 120 bytes of memory is needed for each [Files] entry.

Inno Setup Key features:

• Extensive support for installation of 64-bit applications on the 64-bit editions of Windows. The x64, ARM64 and Itanium architectures are all supported.
• Extensive support for both administrative and non administrative installations.
• Supports creation of a single EXE to install your program for easy online distribution. Also supports the Disk spanning.
• Standard Windows wizard interface.
• Customizable setup types, e.g. Full, Minimal, Custom.
• Complete uninstall capabilities.
• Installation of files: Includes integrated support for “deflate”, bzip2, and 7-Zip LZMA/LZMA2 file compression. The installer has the ability to compare file version info, replace in-use files, use shared file counting, register DLL/OCX’s and type libraries, and install fonts.
• Creation of shortcuts anywhere, including in the Start Menu and on the desktop.
• Creation of registry and .INI entries.
• Support for multilingual installs, including right-to-left language support.
• Running other programs before, during or after install.
• Support for passworded and encrypted installs.
• Support for digitally signed installs and uninstalls, including dual signing (SHA1 & SHA256).
• Silent install and uninstall.
• Unicode installs.
• Integrated preprocessor option for advanced compile-time customization.
• Integrated Pascal scripting engine option for advanced run-time install and uninstall customization.
• Full source code is available from GitHub.
• Tiny footprint: only about 1.3 mB overhead with all features included.
• All features are fully documented.
• Used by Microsoft Visual Studio Code and Embarcardero Delphi.

The Inno Setup QuickStart Pack includes Inno Setup itself and additionally includes options to install third-party add-ons such as the ISTool script editor and Inno Setup Preprocessor. These add-ons are not official and are not required for general usage, but make Inno Setup easier to use.

6.3.0 (2024-06-09)

Support for UTF-8 encoded files improved

Added support for UTF-8 encoded files without a BOM for .iss script files, .isl messages files, LicenseFile, InfoBeforeFile, InfoAfterFile, and ISPP’s #file.
Compiler IDE changes:
New script files are now saved as UTF-8 without a BOM by default, bringing the IDE into line with most other text editors. Existing files are still saved as they were until the save encoding is changed manually using the Save Encoding submenu of the File menu.
Added new UTF-8 with BOM menu item to the Save Encoding submenu of the File menu to save new files with a BOM anyway.
Pascal Scripting changes:
Support function LoadStringsFromFile now also supports UTF-8 encoded files without a BOM.
Added new SaveStringsToUTF8FileWithoutBOM support function.
ISPP change: preprocessor output saved by SaveToFile is now always saved as UTF-8 without a BOM.

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