Checking for Installed Software Versions

Common questions about using Actual Installer.
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shawnolson
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2019 3:44 pm

Checking for Installed Software Versions

Post by shawnolson »

I am a plugin developer specializing in 3ds Max plugins who just bought your pro version today. I would like to know how to set up an installer to detect what versions of 3ds Max are installed, check if they are the correct version ranges, and then allow the user to choose what versions to install the plugins for. I assume this would be under the Prerequisites tab of General, but it's not clear to me how to use this. For example in the pre-existing minimum requirements for .NET, there is a drop-down that allows minimum versions. How do you use the Additional Prerequisites to do the same kind of thing?

In the case of 3ds Max, the installation path is arbitrary on the user's system and users very often have multiple versions installed at a time. There are registry keys to determine installed versions.

Preferably I'd like the user to see a list of available Max versions that are on the system and based on which versions they check install into the appropriate folders and edit the appropriate user INI files for each version in LocalAppData.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Leo
Site Admin
Posts: 456
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2010 12:40 pm

Re: Checking for Installed Software Versions

Post by Leo »

Hi,

You can read the installed version of 3ds Max from registry. For this use the System \ Variables section.
The value will be stored in a variable, which you can then use with Additional Prerequisites.

Please see the examples of Prerequisites here:
https://www.actualinstaller.com/help/prerequisites.html
Leo,
Actual Installer Team
https://www.actualinstaller.com
shawnolson
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2019 3:44 pm

Re: Checking for Installed Software Versions

Post by shawnolson »

Thank you, I've got this mainly working.

Is it possible to include Checkboxes for each version of Max installed and let the user choose which versions to utilize? For example, if the user has 4 versions of Max installed but only wants to install into 2 of those versions?
Leo
Site Admin
Posts: 456
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2010 12:40 pm

Re: Checking for Installed Software Versions

Post by Leo »

Current version doesn't support this feature.
But we'll try to add this in new releases.
Leo,
Actual Installer Team
https://www.actualinstaller.com
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