Open Source Windows Installers

NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) is a professional open source system to create Windows installers. It is designed to be as small and flexible as possible and is therefore very suitable for internet distribution. Being a user's first experience with your product, a stable and reliable installer is an important component of succesful software. With NSIS you can create such installers that are capable of doing everything that is needed to setup your software. NSIS is script-based and allows you to create the logic to handle even the most complex installation tasks. Many plug-ins and scripts are already available: you can create web installers, communicate with Windows and other software components, install or update shared components and more.

Zero Install is a decentralised cross-distribution software installation system. Create one package that works everywhere! With dependency handling and automatic updates, full support for shared libraries, and integration with native package managers

Both forward-chaining and backward-chaining rules (which may include python code) are compiled into python. Can also automatically assemble python programs out of python functions which are attached to backward-chaining rules. See pyke.sourceforge.ne

JSmooth creates standard Windows executable files (.exe) that smartly launch java applications. It makes java deployment much smoother and user-friendly, as it is able to find and run Java VMs by itself, or help the user get one if none are available.

NSISBI aims to remove the current 2GB limit found in NSIS. This version adds support for using a separate file for storing the install data, therefore allowing installer sizes up to a theoretical max size of 8EB (this is controlled by NSIS_CONFIG_EXTERNAL_FILE_SUPPORT, this is turned on by default). On versions before 7069-1, the compiler (makensis) is designed to run on 64 bit machines as this is the feature needed to make installers bigger than 2GB. On versions before 7208-1, source files added to the installer are limited to 2GB per file (this is controlled by NSIS_CONFIG_LARGE_FILE_SUPPORT, this is turned on by default). This project is the result of several different experiments focused on relieving the 2GB limit in NSIS, so it's still a work in progress. I'll try to keep it up to date with each major NSIS release.

ISO2USB utility creates bootable USB drive from CentOS/RedHat 5.x/6.x installation disk or corresponding ISO image. Created USB drive may be used to perform installation on machines that lacks optical drive.

InstallJammer is a multiplatform GUI installer and builder. InstallJammer is no longer under active development.

Spoon Installer has the advantage of being small (using LZMA for compression), uninstalls are generated automatically, outputs one setup executable file - perfect for web installs and creating new installs is a piece of cake thanks to a visual selection

Winzard-PIW is a personal project designed to simplify post-installation of Windows systems (Windows 10/11). It provides a local, script-based, transparent alternative to older post-install tools (such as WPI/Windows Post-Install Wizard ), without relying on deprecated technologies (Internet Explorer engine, ActiveX, etc.). PIW supports: Silent installation of EXE / MSI applications Deployment of portable applications JSON-based configuration Full user control and local execution This project is developed without formal programming background, with assistance from ChatGPT, and is published as an alpha release. PIW is not affiliated with WPI and does not claim to replace it, but should be considered a spiritual successor adapted to modern Windows environments. Security note: Alpha 1.0 and Alpha 1.5 False positives may occur due to BAT-to-EXE wrapping. All actions are local, transparent, and user-initiated.

Great and powerful application to generate stable and multi-platform java installers. Watch a demo of DCP Setup Maker's installer being made in 2 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmF5Kyla7Hg Its intuitive UI and exceptional ease of use makes it very easy to build complex installers with large amounts of files. The whole process is done step by step through a wizard-like interface, filling in fields and setting up files to finally build your package. *Required: Java 1.6+ Powered by Java, IzPack, Apache Pivot, Apache Ant, Nuget, launch4j and Stax. Source code migrated to https://github.com/DevComPack/setupmaker

Appupdater provides advanced functionality to Windows, similar to apt-get or yum on Linux. It automates the process of installing and maintaining up to date versions of programs. It is fully customizable for use in a corporate environment.

A CLI Java front-end to Ninite.com, a webapp that makes single-file web-installers for a select number of windows applications. This program makes it easy to generate (download) installers with a single command line, versus working through a browser. The packages downloaded are genuine Ninite installers, so all the same functionality is available, such as detecting installed apps and updating, as well as 64-bit detection. In addition, mimite supports installing apps that are not available through the web interlace, but are still able to be generated, namely the contents of the "pro" user list of apps. (https://ninite.com/applist/pro.html)

WixEdit is an editor for XML source code of the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset. WixEdit lets you create MSI and MSM setup packages with the WiX Toolset. It provides a visual representation of the dialogs and an easy way to edit the WiX source files. (Project moved to Github: https://github.com/WixEdit/WixEdit)

JRunner lets your deployment fly. JRunner has been designed to get and run Windows and Java application from a webserver. JRunner automatically handles updates, driver installation if there are newer files to download. JRunner reduces the deployment cos

Automated software deployment, upgrade and removal script for Windows. Can be run as a service to install software in the background without user interaction. See http://wpkg.org/ for more info and downloads. See http://lists.wpkg.org/ for mailing lists.

PHP Packager is a dynamic application for PHP developers and web developers alike. It's basically a ONE file installer program, so no messy extractions, etc, just place in the directory you want to install to and you're done!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please use the version 1.1.4 or later. There is a big bug in the previous versions. With this useful tool you can edit the OEM informations on your Windows computer. You can change, add and delete.

jStart32 works as Win32-EXE wrapper to start JAVA Applications running on Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Both tools, the wrapper and the configuration tool are written in Delphi 7.

(NOW PRIMARILY HOSTED ON GITHUB @ https://www.github.com/keelanstuart/sfxPackager) Youtube video tutorials for sfxPackager: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaed72lE3UjgzdL1qOys-vxemSUOeGJWf sfxPackager allows you to create setup / install packages for Windows, with a user-friendly, project-based GUI and integrated Javascript interpreter featuring an extensive API for handling more complex install tasks. User's Guide: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vRAVGjiJbSYUrOWB8jEzqG7hMwVbZqvCiAbVmOeL25hoEmN909H-BtGjEawmTMZLta5qHfhGydWDqQd/pub

Moved to: https://github.com/vanderlee/Plugin-Setup Windows Setup tool specifically designed for installing PhotoShop compatible plug-ins. Will recognize all Windows PhotoShop plug-in compatible hosts and allow the user to pick which hosts the plug-in should be installed for.

A high-quality JNLP client that can also be used as a component to provide applications with Java Network Launching Protocol features and support. Netx downloads code over the network, caches it, and runs it in a secure sandbox environment.

It represents a loader program that checks for the latest version of the necessary components on the manufacturer's server, then downloads them and installs them on the user's personal computer. At the same time, the user does not need to search for all the necessary components independently. Also, the tool allows you to select the required PC bit rate for installation and use it to load all the components necessary for operation. Warning. By default, the Russian version of the program is downloaded, to download the English version, go to Files.

GUI Builder for creating Install Control Center project files

RDI is a library that gives your application the ability to install its dependencies at runtime. Perfect for plugins oriented architectures. Many kind of deps: RPMs, DEBs, .so, .dll, RubyGems... Easily extensible to new kinds.

The Solution for Windows Silent Software Installation. The Great Unattended Project - TGUP is an Online Unattended Installer that downloads and installs latest versions of commonly-used freeware silently in sequence and sorts them into the startmenu. See TGUP in Action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6t--dDbYHM