Product info

Enter the name of your product. This name is displayed in the installer, uninstaller, and as part of the Add/Remove Programs information that Windows maintains. It is also used in various places as part of folder names and paths, so you should be careful not to use characters that cause problems in file and folder paths. In particular, do not use any of the following characters:

< > | : / \ " ? *

The Product name value is available throughout the project as the <ProductName> variable.

Enter the version number of your product. The preferred format is a.b.c.d where a, b, c and d are numbers from 0 to 65535, inclusive. You may leave off sub-versions from the right, and you may also add other information (for example, 3.0 Beta), but we recommend that you start the Product version field with something resembling a.b, because that allows automatic parsing of the version number by the installer.

The Product version value is available throughout the project as the <ProductVersion> variable.

Enter the name of the product's publisher. This could be an individual developer's name, the name of the organization that developed the product, or the name of a separate publishing company. This name is displayed in the installer, uninstaller, and as part of the uninstall information that Windows maintains.

The Publisher name value is available throughout the project as the <Publisher> variable.

Enter the copyright notice for your product. This notice is displayed in the installer. The default value, which includes a symbolic reference to the publisher's name, is usually a good starting point.

The Copyright notice value is available throughout the project as the <Copyright> variable.

Check this box and use the ... (browse) button to select a file from which to copy the VERSIONINFO resource information that is used for the Product name and other product identification fields. The preceding fields will be made read-only to indicate that the information is automatically updated. Only executable files (.exe and .dll) may contain a VERSIONINFO resource; you would typically use the product's main executable file to link to. If the linked file does not have VERSIONINFO resource or lacks some of the information, no updates take place for those fields.

The information is updated each time you open the project; immediately before each preflight check or project build; and whenever you choose the Project > Refresh command from the main menu (or hit the equivalent Shift+F5 key combination).

The following information is retrieved from the VERSIONINFO resource in the linked file:

*These fields are not standard VERSIONINFO fields, but are used by some applications.

Enter the GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) for your product. When you create a new project, InstallMate automatically generates a new product GUID for you. Unless you have a good reason to change this GUID and are aware of the implications, we recommend that you keep the GUID that was generated for you.

The product GUID must be unique across all Windows software; it is used, among other things, to uniquely identify your product on Windows systems and to store the uninstallation information. If the GUID accidentally or intentionally matches the GUID of a different product (whether yours or someone else's), the program maintenance information for the two products will get mixed up.

You might want to change the product GUID under the following circumstances:

• To re-create an installer for a product whose installation project was lost for some reason. In this case, you will want to set the product GUID to the GUID of the original installer. To do so, first make the Product GUID field writable by clearing the Lock GUID checkbox; then make the desired change; and finally lock the field again by checking Lock GUID.
• To generate a new GUID if you copied the project file manually or by using the File > Open Project As Copy... command. In this case, you can generate a new one by clicking the Generate button (see below).

Tip: If you want to use the project for a new product (or if you want the product to behave as an independent version), then you can also use the Project > Generate New GUIDs command to generate new GUIDs for the product and all its componenents.

The product GUID must have the following format:

{aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeeee}

Each group of characters must consist of uppercase hexadecimal digits, i.e., the characters 0-9 and A-F.

The Product GUID value is available throughout the project as the <ProductCode> variable.

Click this button to generate a new GUID and copy it to the Product GUID field. The GUID is generated by the Windows UuidCreate() function and is guaranteed to be globally unique if your computer contains a functioning network card.

Note: No network access takes place when the GUID is generated, but the network card's unique identifier is used as part of the new GUID. This is combined with time and date information and a counter, and the result is then securely hashed to make it impossible to reconstruct any of the original information.

Tip: If you want to use the project for a new product (or if you want the product to behave as an independent version), then you can also use the Project > Generate New GUIDs command to generate new GUIDs for the product and all its componenents.

Check this box and enter the URL of the product's main web page. This URL is used in several places in the installer and also as part of the Add/Remove Programs information that Windows maintains for the product. The URL should be fully qualified and must include the protocol specifier (usually http:), for example https://tarma.com. If you clear this box, no such information will be included.

Note: A fully qualified URL should end with a slash ('/') if the last component is a domain or directory name, as opposed to an actual web page. However, Windows formats URLs whose last character is a slash in a rather confusing way if they are displayed with right-to-left (RTL) reading order (for Arabic, Hebrew, and some other languages). We therefore recommend leaving off the final slash if your installer will be localized for RTL reading.

The Web site URL value is available throughout the project as the <WebSite> variable.

Warning: If this checkbox is cleared, these variables will not be stored in the installation database. If you use them anyway, this results in one or more diagnostic messages when the project is built.

Check this box and enter the URL of the product's update or download web page. This URL is part of the Add/Remove Programs information that Windows maintains for the product. The URL should be fully qualified and must include the protocol specifier (usually http:), for example https://tarma.com/products/tin3/download.htm. If you clear this box, no such information will be included.

Note: A fully qualified URL should end with a slash ('/') if the last component is a domain or directory name, as opposed to an actual web page. However, Windows formats URLs whose last character is a slash in a rather confusing way if they are displayed with right-to-left (RTL) reading order (for Arabic, Hebrew, and some other languages). We therefore recommend leaving off the final slash if your installer will be localized for RTL reading.

The Update URL value is available throughout the project as the <UpdateURL> variable.

Warning: If this checkbox is cleared, these variables will not be stored in the installation database. If you use them anyway, this results in one or more diagnostic messages when the project is built.

Check this box and enter the URL of the product's support web page. This URL is part of the Add/Remove Programs information that Windows maintains for the product. The URL should be fully qualified and must include the protocol specifier (usually http:), for example https://tarma.com/support/index.htm. If you clear this box, no such information will be included.

Note: A fully qualified URL should end with a slash ('/') if the last component is a domain or directory name, as opposed to an actual web page. However, Windows formats URLs whose last character is a slash in a rather confusing way if they are displayed with right-to-left (RTL) reading order (for Arabic, Hebrew, and some other languages). We therefore recommend leaving off the final slash if your installer will be localized for RTL reading.

The Support URL value is available throughout the project as the <SupportURL> variable.

Warning: If this checkbox is cleared, these variables will not be stored in the installation database. If you use them anyway, this results in one or more diagnostic messages when the project is built.

Check this box and enter the email address for the product support department of your product. This address is used in several places in the installer and also as part of the Add/Remove Programs information that Windows maintains for the product. If you clear this box, no such information will be included.

The Email address value is available throughout the project as the <Email> variable.

Warning: If this checkbox is cleared, these variables will not be stored in the installation database. If you use them anyway, this results in one or more diagnostic messages when the project is built.

Check this box and enter the telephone number for the product support department of your product. This number is part of the Add/Remove Programs information that Windows maintains for the product. If you clear this box, no such information will be included.

The Telephone value is available throughout the project as the <Telephone> variable.

Warning: If this checkbox is cleared, these variables will not be stored in the installation database. If you use them anyway, this results in one or more diagnostic messages when the project is built.

Check this box and enter any product support or uninstallation remarks that you want to be included in the Add/Remove Programs information that Windows maintains for the product.

The Comments value is available throughout the project as the <Comments> variable.

Warning: If this checkbox is cleared, these variables will not be stored in the installation database. If you use them anyway, this results in one or more diagnostic messages when the project is built.

Check this box to configure the current installer as an add-on installer for another product (the main product); clear it for a regular installer.

In an add-on installer, InstallMate will check that the main product is present on the target system before installing the add-on, and will also register the add-on as a dependent of the main product. This in turn causes the add-on to be automatically uninstalled if the main product is. See Add-on installers for more information.

Note: This option is NOT intended to upgrade the entire product, for example with a new release. In that case, you should simply rebuild your existing InstallMate project (keeping the same Product GUID as the previous version) with the new product files. The resulting installer will automatically uninstall the previous version when the new one is installed.

Enter the product GUID for the main product installer if the current product installer is intended as an add-on for another product (the main product).

The main product's GUID value is available throughout the project as the <MainProductCode> variable.

Enter the user-visible name of the main product if you are creating an add-on installer. InstallMate uses the main product name in messages that relate to the add-on installation, for example if the main product is not present on the target system when the add-on is installed. Ideally, the name that you enter here should be identical to the name of the main product on the target system, but this is not a requirement.

The main product's name is available throughout the project as the <MainProductName> variable.

Tip: If your add-on is restricted to specific versions of the main product (see Minimum version and Maximum version), then you should include the allowable versions in the Main product name field to help the user understand for which main product the add-on or upgrade is intended.

Enter the minimum and maximum allowed versions of the main product if the add-on or upgrade is specific to certain main product versions. You can leave Minimum version empty if there is no minimum version, and leave Maximum version empty if there is no maximum version. To specify a single version, set both fields to the same version.

Each version must use the format a.b.c.d with a-d being integers between 0 and 65535, inclusive. You may leave off less significant components from the right; they will be treated as if they were 0. For example, 2.1, 2.1.0, and 2.1.0.0 are equivalent. You may use symbolic variables to specify either version, as long as they resolve to the correct format.

The main product's minimum and maximum version numbers are available throughout the project as the <MainProductMinVer> and <MainProductMaxVer> variables.

Tip: To specify all subversions of a major version, for example all 2.1 releases, set Minimum version to 2.1.0.0 and Maximum version to 2.1.65535.65535.