SSE Setup - free and easy Windows program installer
SSE Setup Change Log (Version Changes)

Note: This page just provides a brief overview of the most important latest changes and may not list all of them.
For more detailed info, see the Version Changes section of the help file after installing the new version.

Version 10.7

- Bug Fix: Possible problematic EXE distribution creation on systems with certain CPU and RAM configurations.

- New Change: Addition of Access 2021 to allow specifying as minimum Access version to require.

- New Change: Defender should now "play nicer" with certain editing/creation operations and thus improve speed of such operations.

Version 10.6

- Bug Fix: The "Beta" option on the Program Info page may have caused various install-related problems and errors in certain situations.

- Bug Fix: Various problems with Windows bringing up an error stating it could not find a program or file when the program or file as specified in settings is correct.

- Bug Fix: Programs started using the NoUAC functionality available via the Shortcuts page might have been started without focus.

- New Change: Additions and removals of available .NET related prerequisites you can require.

- New Change: Removal of SSE Setup controlled download links for VC++ 2005 & 2008 runtimes, .NET Framework 2.0 runtime (by itself - not as 3.5) and for all versions of Windows Installer. This is because Microsoft had already removed the download links to these items.

- New Change: A Prerequisite's file or registry condition that uses >= comparison can now specify a <= on the same line to establish a range that a value must fall between.

- New Change: Addition of Windows 10 22H2 as an OS you can optionally choose to block install on.

Version 10.5

- Bug Fix: Some window icons may have been distorted on systems using non-standard DPI.

- New Change: Addition of keywords you can use in settings to point to the current user or logged on user respectively.

- New Change: Addition of Windows 11 22H2 (build 22621) detection and ability to block install on it.

Version 10.4

- Bug Fix: Digital signing in 10.3 may have failed when using some EV certificates in some situations where a password or pin was provided in Booster.

- Bug Fix: Acrobat Reader provided prerequisite has been updated to account for per-user installs instead of only system-wide.

Version 10.3

- Bug Fix: Digital signing failed with certs that used ECC/ECDSA algorithms instead of RSA.

- Bug Fix: Hidden/hard-to-notice credentials windows when digitally signing

- Bug Fix (Booster): The "Don't Wait" option on the Run Programs page could not be used for non-executable programs.

- New Change: Addition of Windows 11, Server 2022, Windows 10 Version 21H1, Windows 10 Version 21H2 detection and ability to block install on them.

- New Change: Default digital signature algorithm changed from SHA-256 to SHA-384.

- New Change: When digitally signing files you specify, credentials prompts should now only occur once for all.

- New Change (Booster): Preset Timestamper URL's for digitally signing have been updated.

- New Change (Booster): You can now easily select to use SignTool as your digital signer from the Your Info page.

- New Change (Booster): When installing both 32-bit and 64-bit Access db files using the custom "acc32" and "acc64" flags, a prompt about duplicate files should no longer show.

- New Change: NOLIMITOS setting now currently blocks OS's of 12.0 or higher instead of 11.0.

Version 10.2

- Bug Fix: Problems with Access installs where an included Access runtime was installed using a non-default option.

- Bug Fix: Rare UI display problems with message notification windows in 8.0+

- New Feature: Access installs can now include both a 32-bit and 64-bit database file in the same install package and have Setup install the correct one depending on installed Access. To accomplish this, you will need to follow the newly updated Access Deployment Guide, paying particular attention to Steps 5 and 6.

- New Change: Addition of Windows 10 Version 20H2 to allow blocking install on.

- New Change: Access installs are better about dealing with opposite Office bitness scenarios.

- New Change: The Access prerequisite can now require a specific Access build as its minimum.

- New Change: Access installs that specify to work on either 32-bit or 64-bit Access now have different default runtime rules when no Office is found.

Version 10.1

- Bug Fix: Single-file install lines that were set to overwrite may have failed to perform overwriting in v10.0.

- Bug Fix: The version detection in 10.0 did not correctly handle versions marked as beta.

- Bug Fix: UI positioning problems in the Internet Update Module included with 10.0 when a reboot was required.

- Bug Fix: Assorted Access prerequisite fixes. (1) Possible trouble correctly detecting some Office 2013 installations. (2) Incorrectly allowing for a download/install of a missing runtime if you required a specific bitness (i.e. 64 bit) and the opposite bitness of the same runtime was already installed. In this case it should have brought up a notice stating this problem since both bitness types cannot typically co-exist for the same version. (3) Possibly incorrect or invalid Access path determination when you required a specific Access version and did not allow later versions (not the default) when a later Access version was installed. (4) Access installs that required 2007 runtime or 2010 SP1 may have failed to install a runtime. This is because Microsoft removed those downloads from their site. To compensate, as of October 2020, installs that would have tried downloading a 2007 runtime now will download 2010, and installs wanting to download 2010 SP1 will instead download 2010 SP2. This is retroactive to previous SSE Setup versions. See Version Changes part of help file for further info on this.

- New Change: The Access prerequisite is now set to require Access 2013 by default instead of 2007.

- New Change: Support for running Microsoft Self-Extractor installer executables that need config.xml files to run silently.

- New Change: Addition of "ODBC Driver for SQL Server" as a provided prerequisite check.

- New Change: Addition of Windows 10 Version 2004 to allow blocking install on.

- New Change: More flexibility in using text in versions for Internet Update functionality.

Version 10.0

Intro to the 10.x series

The 10.x series (9.x was skipped) continues the development path of 8.x with the intention being to further improve and refine SSE Setup to take an already great installer and make it even more extensible and practical. One of the most notable changes in 10.x is that the multi-language support has been significantly updated. This includes a multilingual Internet Updater/downloader, improved and more complete translation coverage in Setup and Uninstall, ability for users to custom edit language phrases for any supported language they want for their projects, and ability for users to add support for their own languages in addition to the ones provided with SSE Setup. There are several other notable changes as well - see below.

Notes for upgraders: (1) v8.x and earlier projects (down to 6.x) are supported but will be upgraded to the 10.x way of doing things and if you later choose to downgrade back to 8.x, some settings might be lost or contain values that won't work in 8.x. It is suggested you first back up your projects before upgrading (you can do this easily via the Launchpad Settings window). (2) Make SURE you read all of the info for 10.0 in the Version Changes part of the help file after installing as there are some very notable changes that will affect your projects! (3) If your previous version was a 7.x or earlier version make sure you also read the v8.0 notes and warnings in the Version Changes part of the help file! (4) Be advised that starting with this version an existing "Test Program 1.0" project will be overwritten with the default provided one in this version. Previous versions might have upgraded the Test Program 1.0 project so that any changes you may have made in it were retained, but starting in 10.0 that no longer occurs and that project will always get reset upon upgrade. (5) If you use 10.x to create any patches intended to patch a program installed with 8.x or earlier, you need to make sure to select to include the real Setup in the patch on the Program Info page when editing your project for correct operation. In general, it is best to use 10.x to patch 10.x programs, and 8.x to patch 8.x programs. (6) Note that if upgrading from a version before v7.2 where you had installed the optional wizard images update, you may encounter some irregularities such as Booster being unable to find some of the wizard images you may have used in projects. (7) Note: The 8.x series could upgrade versions of SSE Setup from 3.0 and greater (even though documentation only declared support for 5.0 and greater as 3.x/4.x support was not ideal or tested). 10.x however only upgrades 6.0 and greater, but will detect previous versions if they are installed and alert you that you will need to first uninstall them. (8) Vista/Server 2008 support has been dropped for installing SSE Setup itself and now requires Windows 7 or higher to install (you can still create installers that run on Vista or earlier however).

Changes Made

- Bug Fix (Booster): Running MSI/MSU/MSP files via the Run Programs or Uninstall Run Programs pages did not let you specify any command-line arguments.

- Bug Fix (Booster): Testing a project that was already installed and showing the uninstall may have partially hidden the uninstaller.

- Bug Fix: Potential timing-related issues in many SSE Setup executables when run around midnight.

- Bug Fix: Upgrades or patches created with SSE Setup 7.x or greater that were installed via the Internet Update Module might not have required a reboot when they should have.

- Bug Fix: Setup exit codes may not have been returned when run via an EXE distribution.

- Bug Fix: Some conflicting processes might not have been able to be closed that should have been in v8.x.

- Bug Fix: Long path fixes in Setup. To workaround some changed Windows behavior instituted in Windows updates.

- Bug Fix: Installing updates created with 8.x via the Internet Update Module may have taken longer than it should have.

- Bug Fix (Internet Updater): The Internet Updater in v8.4-8.7 may have crashed on Windows Vista/Server 2008 due to a Vista bug, and the Internet Updater in the Internet Updater Vista patch for v8.7 may have crashed on https URL's on pre-Vista (i.e. XP).

- Bug Fix: Access installs might not have correctly gotten the path to Access in a certain situation.

- Bug Fix: Files that were overwritten or were a system file that contained the same filename as another file that was overwritten or a system file might have been handled incorrectly.

- Bug Fix: An install line that used the "Do not install if this data is being upgraded" option (flag: noupgrade) might not have installed when it should have.

- Bug Fix: Several .NET Framework 4.x prerequisite fixes. Mostly minor. If your project(s) use any of those prerequisites, it is suggested you remove it from your project(s) and then re-add it (otherwise the "prerequisite code" will not get updated for your specific projects).

- New Feature: Add or modify the language translations used for your install. You can now modify the language text that is used for your installs on a per-project basis and can also add language support to SSE Setup beyond the languages that SSE Setup is shipped with.

- New Feature: IUI Alert Messages. In v8.4, the core infrastructure was added which is now being enabled in v10.0. This feature allows programs that are using the Internet Update Module for update checking purposes to be able to receive alert messages that you issue.

- New Feature: Detection of future versions and versions it doesn't know about. While SSE Setup has long had the ability to detect and upgrade from previous versions of your software that you specifically told it about, it could not detect future versions or versions that it did not know about. Now it usually can and thus does a much better job by default in avoiding allowing side-by-side installs in these situations (you can change this).

- New Feature: You can now allow users to choose which file associations they want to make.

- New Feature: You can choose to not have your program version displayed as much.

- New Feature: Access installs can now block Office first-time-use dialogs.

- New Feature: The display language can be set via command-line for Setup, Uninstall, and Internet Updater.

- New Change: Start Menu:Programs shortcuts functionality operates differently. Affects most all projects and was done to better align with Microsoft practices in Windows 10 (and to some degree 8/8.1). For new projects SSE Setup now only installs 1 shortcut to Start Menu:Programs by default (no longer writes an Uninstall shortcut by default). Also, for projects installing only 1 total shortcut to Start Menu:Programs, it now no longer puts them in a subfolder by default, and if you are installing more than 1 shortcut there, it now might only put them in a subfolder named after your program name (not name + version) by default. Also the Start Menu & Start Menu:Programs options have been merged together by default when it comes to display to the user in the installer and it now just talks about putting shortcuts on the Start Menu. Read the Version Changes part of the help file after upgrade for much more info on all this.

- New Change: Significantly improved Multilingual support.

- New Change: You no longer disable languages, but rather enable them.

- New Change: When you force a specific language for your install, it now also applies to the uninstaller and updater as well.

- New Change: The Classic UI has been discontinued. Any projects that used it will instead automatically now use the AUTO UI mode which will pick one of the Wizard UI's depending on OS. With the significant multilingual changes and improvements in 10.x, it just became too troublesome to support 2 completely different Setup interface types with different phrasings and ways of doing things.

- New Change: Attempting to reinstall an already existing version now allows you to easily uninstall the existing and then proceed with a reinstall.

- New Change: Setup can now often handle situations where an uninstaller may have been incorrectly deleted.

- New Change: The entire version detection code has been revamped and is much more robust, particularly for non-admins and admins that are being treated as non-admins.

- New Change: Overwriting of files in or under the folder where the user installs your program is now often allowed for non-patch installs in addition to patch installs.

- New Change: Existing shortcuts can now be overwritten or the one being installed can be automatically renamed.

- New Change: New projects using the provided default templates now will disable install for OS's earlier than Windows 7 by default. You can still allow install on the earlier OS's down to Windows 2000, but by default they will not be enabled.

- New Change: When there are conflicting processes and Setup asks the user about closing them, it now lists the processes in question.

- New Change (Internet Updater): Improved TLS 1.1 and 1.2 support for Win7.

- New Change: The CPU Speed Prerequisite now only is for specifying first core speed, not speed of all cores together.

- New Change: Faster EXE distributions.

- New Change: Patch and Upgrade descriptions in the IUI file for Internet Updating are allowed to be longer.

- New Change: You can now recursively remove files/subfolders on the Uninstall Files page ( section) in certain cases.

- New Change: Addition of .NET Framework 4.8 as a prerequisite you can select.

- New Change: Addition of Windows 10 versions 1903 and 1909 to allow blocking install on.

- New Change: Removal of /CLEAR command-line switch. Because of the new version detection code, this switch is no longer needed.

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