Creating an installer

Inno Setup is interesting. This is a huge project, with a lot of features (including scripting language and plugins), and is coded in Delphi.

But take a look at NSIS installer. It is not written in Delphi, but it is much lighter. Creating a simple .ini file and you've your full installer made. See for instance how it was easy to create an installer for our small Secure NotePad tool - very similar to your need.

I use to create custom installers in Delphi code. In some cases, if you do not have to use a lot of features but need to reuse some existing code, it could make sense.

For this, I use two of our Open Source units:

• Our PasZip unit is able to create a stand-alone unzipper, directly from the exe - see the sample code;
• Our LVCL classes which are able to create very small executables.

Last advice: do not pack your exe with upx or other packers, since it tends to create false positives associated to Delphi executables with some anti virus softwares.

We use Setup Factory. It's simple to learn and use, and integrates with our automated build process using Final Builder.

Setup Factory