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General Information about Upgrading Projects that Were Created in Earlier Versions of InstallShield

If you use InstallShield 2012 Express Edition to open a project that was created with an earlier version, InstallShield 2012 Express Edition displays a message box that asks you if you want to convert the project to the new version. If you reply that you do want to convert it, InstallShield creates a backup copy of the project with a file extension such as .771 before converting it. Delete the .771 part from the original project's file name if you want to reopen the project in the earlier version of InstallShield. Note that you cannot open InstallShield 2012 Express Edition projects in earlier versions of InstallShield.

You can upgrade projects that were created with the following versions of InstallShield Express Edition to InstallShield 2012 Express Edition: InstallShield 2011 Express Edition and earlier, InstallShield 12 Express Edition and earlier, and InstallShield Express 5 and earlier. Note that projects that were created with InstallShield MultiPlatform or InstallShield Universal cannot be upgraded to InstallShield 2012 Express Edition.

Build Warning -7235 for Express Projects

By default, software identification tagging is enabled in all Express projects. This applies to new projects that you create in InstallShield 2012 Express Edition, as well as projects that you have upgraded from earlier versions of InstallShield to InstallShield 2012 Express Edition.

If you build a release in an Express project without entering data in the required identification tag settings (the Unique ID, Tag Creator, and Tag Creator ID settings in the General Information view), and you leave tagging enabled in the project, build warning -7235 occurs. This build warning explains that the software identification tag could not be created and included in the installation because a specific required setting was left blank. To resolve this warning, enter an appropriate value in each specific setting, or select No for the Use Software Identification Tag setting in the General Information view.

COM Extraction Changes

InstallShield supports a new monitoring method for COM extraction. If you are using InstallShield on a Windows Vista or later system or a Windows Server 2008 or later system, this new method is used by default. The method uses a kernel driver to monitor the areas of the registry that are modified during dynamic COM extraction at build time and static COM extraction at design time. It combines the advantages that the earlier methods provided, allowing the DLL to read existing registries entries and preventing changes to the build machine.

If necessary, you can switch between the three different COM extraction methods by setting the value data of the UseAPIRegistryHooks registry value, which is in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\InstallShield\RegSpy (on 32-bit machines) or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\InstallShield\RegSpy (on 64-bit machines). Possible REG_DWORD value data are:

• 0?Use API hooking to read existing registry entries for the DLL.
• 1?Use registry redirection to prevent making changes to the registered DLLs on the build machine. If the value is not set, this is the default behavior on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems.
• 2?Use the new kernel mode monitoring, which combines the advantages of both of the other methods. If the value is not set, this is the default behavior on Windows Vista and later systems and on Windows Server 2008 and later systems.

This functionality applies to Express projects.

Trialware Support

The only edition of InstallShield that includes the Trialware view is the Premier edition. This edition lets you create the Try and Die type of trialware. InstallShield no longer includes support for creating the Try and Buy/Product Activation type of trialware.

If you have an existing InstallShield Activation Service account and you want to be able to create the Try and Buy/Product Activation type of trialware in InstallShield 2012, you can still do so. For instructions, see Knowledge Base article Q200884.

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