gordonglas / nsis-installer-template

A simple Nullsoft Installer Template you can use as a starting point for your Windows Installer.

Simple NSIS Installer Template

A simple Nullsoft Installer Template you can use as a starting point for your Windows Installer.

When I say simple, I mean it makes some assumptions:

• Currently does checks for Windows 10 and above, and the OS architecture is 64-bit. If these requirements aren't met, it closes after showing the user a message. If you don't want this, you can comment it out in installer.nsi.
• It assumes the app you're installing is 64-bit, and installs files under "$PROGRAMFILES64\${COMPANY_NAME}\${APP_NAME}" where COMPANY_NAME and APP_NAME are defined in build_config.json and $PROGRAMFILES64 is the 64-bit Program Files folder. If you need to install under the 32-bit Program Files folder (or both conditionally) you'll need to make changes, including the registry entries for WOW6432Node.
• Requires admin permission to install. This seems to be the most common scenaro, but if you need to change it, you can change RequestExecutionLevel admin, SetShellVarContext all and the install path.
• Doesn't have code-signing support. If you need it, you'll have to add it yourself to the build script.

Some features:

• You can easily specify what files/folders get installed by specifying the path to their parent folder in the app_files_parent field within build_config.json, documented below.
• Only files/folders that are installed will be deleted during uninstall. This protects the user's machine/files.
• You can pass /BYPASS=TRUE to the installer to bypass the OS version check and the architecture check at runtime. This is for futureproofing.

How to build the installer

Nullsoft Install System version 3.09 or above is required. Once installed, add it's bin folder to your PATH environment variable.

Python3 is required for the build script. I used version 3.11.3, but previous versions of 3 may work.

Since this is a template, you should always clone a new copy of this repo for each installer you need.

git clone [e-mail]:gordonglas/nsis-installer-template.git awesome-game-installer

Update variables in build_config.json

Build with the python3 build script build.py:

python build.py

You can also pass the build config file as a parameter if you want to maintain multiple configurations in the same repo:

python build.py -c build_config.json

The build script uses variables in build_config.json to configure and build the installer. When a user runs the installer, it will add the entry in Add/Remove Programs, so the user can uninstall in the usual way.

build_config.json fields

Note: The build.py script will validate a lot of this for you, but it's nice to have it listed somewhere:

• installer_version and app_version - The version number for the installer and your app, respectively.
• copyright_year - Leave blank for current year, or set it to a specific year.
• app_name - The name or your app.
• company_name - Used as part of the install path to keep your app separate from other companies.
• installer_filename - The installer exe name.
• installer_icon_path - The icon for the installer, whose path is absolute or relative to the build script.
• app_files_parent - Parent folder of the files/folders you want to be installed on the user's machine, whose path is absolute or relative to the build script.
• license_txt_path - The license text file. Relative to app_files_parent. (Yes it must be under app_files_parent, so it also gets installed.)
• main_file - Usually the main exe that will run from the start menu and desktop shortcuts. Relative to app_files_parent.
• icon_path - Your app's icon. Relative to app_files_parent. (Yes it must be under app_files_parent, so it gets installed and Add/Remove Programs can properly show it.)
• create_desktop_shortcut - true or false to have the installer create a desktop shortcut to main_file.
• create_start_menu_shortcut - true or false to have the installer create a start menu shortcut to main_file.