Questions tagged [nsis]

This tag is used for questions about the open source Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) setup generator.

Details

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

Getting Started

IDE

Plugins

NSIS comes with a variety of plugins

Plugins are usually one .dll file and an .nsh file. To Install Plugins you need to copy the dll to C:\Program Files\NSIS\Plugins and the nsh file to C:\Program Files\NSIS\Include
See : How do I install a Plugin

Useful Plugins

Tips

  1. You can use the the LogicLib which comes as part of the installation to use if conditions in your script (this is not directly available). All you need to do is:

    !include 'LogicLib.nsh'
    

    And then:

    # ...
    ${If} $0 == "hello"
        DetailPrint "world"
    ${Endif}
    

    See this for details.

2580 questions
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How to add a DLL Plugin without NSH file into my NSIS script?

I'm using NSIS 2.46. Plugin I'm trying to use is HwInfo plug-in (Official Link). The ZIP file comes with some source codes and a DLL file. I put the HwInfo.dll inside \NSIS\Plugins directory. When adding a plugin, I'm supposed to !include the .nsh…
Samik Sengupta
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How to load a file's contents into a variable/define in NSIS?

I have a file 'releaseVersionNumber.txt' which I read during my build process; currently its read for my Mac build but I want to read it in my Windows NSIS build to reduce the number of edit locations (duplication being evil)... So I'm trying to…
Justin
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NSIS pages and sections execution

probably I am not getting basics of pages and sections in nsis script. I have to analyse installation script which was not made by me. In the top of the script there are macros of MUI pages for example !insertmacro MUI_PAGE_LICENSE…
marek_lani
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Executing multiple installers/exe in one installer?

I want a software installer to execute another exe/installer once the one installer finish installing. No matter which installer used (NSIS, Inno Setup etc.) to make it, I just want to do this. Is it even possible?
Jared Mikz
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Clickable banner/ header image in Setup program

I need to make an Windows installer either with NSIS or InnoSetup. The customer wants an image to be displayed in the installer dialogues/ wizard pages and the image needs to be clickable, e.g. open a browser window when clicked. Is this possible?…
fweigl
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NSIS Integration with Windows Games Explorer

I'm trying to get the NSIS installer for my game to register the game with the Games Explorer in Vista/Win7. In all other respects, my installer is working fine - but I've had a difficult time identifying the 'right' way to integrate with the Games…
Quintus
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Setting a variable at run time

I am making an NSIS script which checks if a previous version of the application is installed. If so, it asks whether or not the configuration file should be imported from this previous version. So I have a global variable config file which I am…
Harry
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How can I copy files from the installer to the hard drive in NSIS but only if they do not already exist or are newer then the existing ones?

At the moment I am using: SetOutPath "$INSTDIR\folder\subfolder" File /r ..\Output\*.* The problem is when re-installing all files will be overwritten. Questions: How do I copy the files from the installer only if they do not already exist in the…
cfischer
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Possible to hide all details in NSIS installation progress page?

Using the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS), I'm looking for a way to hide the details on the MUI_PAGE_INSTFILES page when having a setup with Modern UI 2. Currently an example of what I have is this: And this would be what I want to…
Uwe Keim
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Create NSIS package as part of build

Is there a way to compile a NSIS package as part of a build? I use MSBuild. Update: There is a command tool called makensis as part of the NSIS download. I just executed that from my build script and handed it my .nsi file. Example:
Riri
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Does installing my app into Local Application Data folder has drawbacks?

Currently planning on making the installation process for a .NET application I'm selling smoother (read: "possible") for non-administrator users, I stumbled upon applications like Google Chrome and Microsoft SkyDrive: They seem to not install into…
Uwe Keim
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NSIS CreateShortcut insists on using %ProgramFiles% for the icon path

I have the following NSIS code Function CreateDesktopSC ;Creates Desktop Shortcut SetShellVarContext current SetOutPath "$DOCUMENTS\Foo\" SetShellVarContext all detailprint "Icon path: $INSTDIR\Bar\icon.ico" CreateShortCut…
John
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NSIS license file based on language selection

Not quite sure how to accomplish this... I'm using NSIS to build an installer for some apps, and the installer supports English and Japanese. How would I tell NSIS to use one license file (license.txt) if the user selected English, and a different…
Dmitry Brant
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NSIS SQL connection

While installing with my NSIS installer script I need to run some script on SQL Server: select, update, create and insert. How can I do that without having a SQL Server engine on the computer running the NSIS installer? I thought about packing a SQL…
juergen d
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How to save DetailPrint command message in file in NSIS Script?

Idea is to run a NSIS script in silent mode to a remote machine and once installation is successfully done than get the log file back to host machine. I have lots of Detailprint command messages that show the progress of the script. Now question is…
User13839404
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