Free installers?

[VectraMan]

I used NSIS at a previous gig. It was all script based, though being open source you can bet there's some other project to put a buggy front end onto it.

But it did work well enough, and I had launching seperate installs for the .NET runtime and some other drivers.

[jmo21]

Wix?

[xoggoth]

I use Inno Setup, have found it very good for commercial (in a small way) programs and the appearance of the instal is no different to high priced commercial programs.

It's script based but there are plenty of script examples for it and complete forums devoted to it. It's reliable and has built in flags to ensure system files not replaced by older/incorrect versions etc. I could supply some examples if you need them, includes installing .net framework, conditional instals depending on operating system, adding shortcuts, checking serial numbers, directing user to update sites etc.

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

[Ardesco]

Seen this used quite a bit.

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

Never used it myself though.

[d000hg]

CAn anyone recommend a good free installer program? I see the same few (don't know the names but they are very recognisable) all over the place, which are good?

We need the ability to prompt the user to install needed Windows components (DirectX) and preferably detect a prior installation.