Advanced Installer 21.3 Release Notes

On December 14th, 2023 Caphyon Ltd. is proud to announce the release of Advanced Installer 21.3 in Free, Professional, Enterprise and Architect editions. This release is available for download on the Advanced Installer website.

As we unveil Advanced Installer 21.3, the final release of the year, we reflect on a transformative 2023. In 2023, Advanced Installer has made remarkable steps in enhancing user experience and functionality.

We began the year with a sleek, WinUI-based Start Page, setting the tone for refreshing the installer experience. Throughout the year, we've consistently delivered, with our participation in key industry events, significant updates in prerequisites, and expansion in .NET support, culminating in a total of 18 new features, more than 100 enhancements, and 150 bug fixes.

This latest version brings to the forefront our commitment to innovation and stability.

This update features automatic UAC detection, Control Flow Guard for EXE installers, and enhanced ARM64 support for VSIX packages. Additionally, we've meticulously addressed bugs affecting .NET Core Custom Actions and WinUI interfaces, ensuring an optimized and user-friendly installation experience.

Uncover the milestones of our 2023 journey in detail by watching our video here.

New features, bug fixes, and general improvements are included in the current release. See the full list below.

New features
  • ARM64 support for VSIX packages
  • New global policies for creating and grouping components
Enhancements
  • Detect and highlight the User Account Control dialog(UAC) if another dialog is in the foreground
  • Support multiple ActiveSetups with the same name

  • Requested by customer
    PowerShell automation support to configure MSIX package dependencies

  • Requested by customer
    Control Flow Guard enabled for EXE installers

  • Requested by customer
    Validate components' GUIDs at build time

  • Requested by customer
    The "Find All" function now includes script custom action content in the search result

  • Requested by customer
    Improved the error message in case the Updater does not find the custom EXE
  • Improved UI functionality for users to easily set any prerequisite as a Framework Prerequisite
  • Enhanced global commands in the Home ribbon group to recognize and interact with the selected current build
  • Updated Updater's GitHub integration to search in both per-user ("HKUD") and per-machine ("HKLM") registry hives

  • Requested by customer
    Added filter option for adding a prerequisite from the repository
  • Improved Repackager CLI

  • Requested by customer
    Support for creating Scheduled Task folders and adding a Scheduled Task to a folder
  • Predefined Prerequisite for .NET 8

  • Requested by customer
    Predefined Launch Condition for .NET Core 8.0
  • Predefined launch conditions for Windows 11 version 23H2
  • Update .NET Framework 4.8.1 prerequisites install conditions for Windows 11
  • Updated .NET prerequisites to the latest version (6.0.25 & 7.0.14)
  • Updated Supported Operating Systems in the Launch Conditions view
Bug fixes
  • Prerequisite was searching for "UpgradeCode" instead of "ProductCode"

  • Reported by customer
    Consecutive executions of .NET Core Custom Actions fail

  • Reported by customer
    Malfunction in MSIX Editor when handling the APPDATA folder
  • Stack Trace error when navigating to the Themes view

  • Reported by customer
    License Agreement text was selected when using the Tab key with EUI enabled
  • Paths to files entered directly in the manifest editor are not always resolved at build time

  • Reported by customer
    FRendering issues with "PrereqProgressDlg" when the package includes Framework type prerequisites
  • SQL Browse control was not populating when Enhanced UI was enabled
  • "AppSearch" behaves incorrectly during EXE setup execution when Enhanced UI was enabled

  • Reported by customer
    Missing right border for the "GroupBox" control in the Surface theme
  • Valid licenses were overwritten by disabled ones before completing the registration process
  • Issue pane was displayed empty in "Edit MSI"

  • Reported by customer
    "Continue with main installation" option was ignored when a prerequisite necessitated a reboot

  • Reported by customer
    Prerequisite install command lines were mistakenly transferred to uninstall during project conversion

  • Reported by customer
    Reboot initiation prevented during Control Panel uninstall or change operations when EUI is enabled

  • Reported by customer
    Confusing error message was displayed if a project with the same name already existed during project creation

  • Reported by customer
    Sporadic issues with Arabic language support (RTLO) in WinUI
  • Prerequisite Dialog was shown during pre-installation even on operating systems that are not supported

  • Reported by customer
    MultipleInstancesDlg dialog was not displayed when WinUI rendering was enabled

  • Reported by customer
    Scroll bar didn't work in the "Properties" pane of the "Shortcuts" view

  • Reported by customer
    Maintenance actions failed if the EXE installer was renamed or moved to a different path

  • Reported by customer
    EXE packages used with Windows Setup Custom Scripts were not installed with the OS