Bytessence Install Maker

Bytessence Install Maker is a freeware sofware installer targeted at individual developers or small companies who need to package their software products for distribution without paying hundreds of dollars on other installation platforms.

BIM helps you create installers without wasting your time with scripting or or other complicated installation mechanisms, however it is still flexible enough to offer advanced tasks or component management. The projects can be built and compiled from a multi-language, straight-forward interface.

The installers generated by BIM can run programs, modify the registry, create shortcuts and internet links, register DLLs, add environment variables, install fonts and many others. In addition, the uninstaller module is able to automatically reverse all the changes to the user's PC.

New! Bytessence Install Maker video tutorial

A video tutorial for Bytessence Install Maker has been released to help new users learn the basics. It covers some of the important features of BIM: creating shortcuts, defining components or running the program at the end of the installation process. You can see the tutorial on this page.

Features

Spyware / Adware / Malware free
Free for personal or business use (donations appreciated)
Works on all major Windows(TM) versions (from Windows 95 to Windows 8)
Generates both 32-bit and 64-bit native installers
Intuitive, multilingual interface
Scriptless design (save time and maximize efficiency)
Programs can be grouped in installable components
Small installer overhead
Powerful compression (ZIP and BLP/LZMA)
No temporary files are used by the installer unlike other similar products
Able to check for .NET framework, IE versions, CPU speed and RAM size
The installers can check for needed software
The installers can check for running programs, existing installations
Advanced task management (create shortcuts, registry access, component registration, modify configuration files, etc.)
Fully automated uninstaller, no configuration needed (it can also execute user-defined actions for additional uninstallation control)
Customizable user interface for the installer (images, colours, background window, executable icon)
Support for external executable packers (32/64 bit)
Free e-mail support

System requirements

For running Bytessence Install Maker:

133 MHz processor (or faster)
64 MB RAM
8 MB of free Hard-Disk space
Operating system: Windows(TM) 95, NT4, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, 7, Server 2008, 8, Server 2012 (32 and 64 bit versions)
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or newer
Screen resolution: minimum 800x600, 16 bits
Optional: An executable packer (see the FAQ below)

For running the generated installers:

133 MHz processor (or faster)
64 MB RAM
Free Hard-Disk space: depends on the packed program
Operating system: Windows(TM) 95, NT4, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, 7, Server 2008, 8, Server 2012 (32 and 64 bit versions)

Screenshots

BIM's user interface	Requirements page	Setting advanced tasks
First page of the installer	Component selection	Choosing the installation path

Click on the thumbnails to see the full-sized images.

What's new in version 5.40

Added Windows 8 / Server 2012 support
Added .NET 4.5 and IE 10 detection capability
Added possibility to check for running processes before (un)installation (on all OS)
Added a 'Send to system tray' button in the compile window
Added / updated translations: Dutch, French, Italian, Polish, Chinese (simpl., trad.), Spanish, Ukrainian
Added experimental right-to-left language support (requires Win2k+)
Added new path variables (more information in the help file)
Added possibility to define a main installation path (so more components can be installed in the same folder)
Added possibility to force an installation mode (per machine or per user)
Added 'recursive' and 'force' options to the folder deletion tasks
Added an 'Entry name' field in the 'Detect existing installations' dialog for improved detection
Added more control for customizing the Add / Remove registry entry
Fixed a number of memory leaks in the main program
Improved UAC compatibility
Improved responsiveness when loading projects and adding input folders
Improved the path variable handler (it now uses KNOWNFOLDERID on Vista and newer OS)
Improved the code for searching for open mutexes
The (un)installer can launch programs / modify registry for the user that started Setup even after elevation
The interface is updated instantly when changing the language (main program)
The program will ask you to save the current project only if it was modified
Rewritten compression and decompression plugins and improved the compression ratio
Projects can now be opened in the current instance (when this mode is active)
Updated documentation
Made UI modifications, (un)installers are now DPI-aware
Made internal code optimizations resulting in a lower memory footprint
Made other minor bugfixes

Click here to view the full changelog of BIM.

Download BIM

You can download BIM from the links below. If you would like to use BIM from a memory stick or similar device, it's recommended to download the portable version, otherwise you'll most probably find the installer version more convenient. Please make sure to uninstall older versions before installing the current release to avoid any conflicts. To check the integrity of the downloaded files you can use our freeware MD5 calculator available here.

Version	Release date	Size	MD5
5.40 (portable)	9 Jan 2013	2511 KB	5928AE9DF9FB8B2F83A38F9FA9FC92E1
5.40 (installer)	9 Jan 2013	2735 KB	C4059A968E899CC91F4DC43301A23F1A

Note to webmasters: If you would like to link to the download, please link to this page instead of the files directly.

Translations

BIM is available in the following languages (alphabetical order):

Translation	Author	Download
Chinese (Simpl.)	Greenleaf, Ones	Included in the main package
Chinese (Trad.)	Chen Richard	Included in the main package
Czech *	Libor Divis	Included in the main package
Dutch	Roy Meessen	Included in the main package
English	Bytessence	Included in the main package
French	Bytessence	Included in the main package
German	Jürgen Lüthje	Included in the main package
Hebrew	Aron Don	Included in the main package
Hellenic *	Manos S. Pappas	Included in the main package
Italian	Alessandro Consorti, Marchiani Simone	Included in the main package
Polish	Bartosz Warzocha	Included in the main package
Portuguese (BR) *	Hélio Márcio	Included in the main package
Romanian	Bytessence	Included in the main package
Russian	Popov Evgeniy Alekseevich	Included in the main package
Slovak *	Rastislav Lazan	Included in the main package
Spanish	Nicolás A. Marin	Included in the main package
Swedish *	Lasse C.	Included in the main package
Turkish	K.Deniz Yilmaz (complete)	Included in the main package
Ukrainian	Buchatsky Vyacheslav	Included in the main package

* = This translation covers only the installer and uninstaller part of the program. The main program will remain in English (or any other language for which BIM has a translation).

If you wish to contribute with language files you can translate one of the files from the Localization folder of your BIM installation (please see the FAQ section for more information). If you don't have time to translate the whole program, you could try to translate only the installer language file (~160 lines long).

Frequently asked questions

Q: How to translate BIM?
A: To localize BIM you can open the file called 'English.ini' from the 'Localization\Installer' directory (for the installer) or the 'Localization\Main' directory (for the main program) of your BIM installation and translate the lines. The files use the standard INI layout so you can use any raw text editor for translation (like Notepad). To make the job easy you can use IniTranslator, an open-source translation utility. After you finish, save the file with ANSI encoding (using the proper codepage). If you want to share it with other users you can send it in an archive at the support e-mail (see the contact page) and it will be published here.

Q: How to install translations?
A: To install translations, unpack the archive to a temporary location (like the Desktop) and copy the extracted .INI file(s) to the 'Localization\Installer' directory or the 'Localization\Main' directory of your BIM installation (for example 'C:\Program Files\Bytessence Install Maker\Localization\'). After copying the file, restart the program if it was running then open the Settings dialog. At this time you should be able to see the name of the installed file in the translations box. To activate it, click the desired language in the list and press 'Accept' to save the settings.

Q: How do i create shortcuts on the desktop?
A: To create a desktop shortcut, go to the Advanced tasks section, enter a name for the task (e.g. Desktop shortcut), select 'Create shortcut' from the task type drop-down box then click the 'Add' button. In the Shortcut output field type <Desktop>\MyProgram (replace MyProgram with the desired name). The rest of the fields can be filled just like in the help file. To see what locations are available for usage within BIM, see the Using BIM - Adding tasks - Path variables topic in the help file.

Q: What compression does BIM use?
A: The current version of BIM uses ZIP compression (via Zlib) because of its speed, reliability and popularity and BLP compression - a custom file format based on the LZMA algorithm for its excellent compression ratio. It is possible that in the future BIM will offer support for other formats as the program now uses an extendable plugin architecture.

Q: Does BIM support runtime packers like UPX?
A: Yes, BIM supports external exectutable packers. It's recommended to use them from BIM's user interface so they will be executed before the compressed data is inserted in the executable. You can add the desired exe packer by going to the Settings dialog - Exe packer section. We recommend using UPX for 32-bit installers and MPress for 64-bit installers. Please see the help file for more information on how to enable external compression.

Q: Why aren't other image formats supported for the installer logos?
A: For the moment only .bmp images are supported because the overhead of the bmp loader is very small compared to others like PNG (which adds an extra 100 kb to the installer module). At the same time the bmp files used by the module are compressed when creating the installers so their size will be much smaller in the final distribution.