InstallShield - Specifying icon for setup.exe

2
votes

I have InstallShield 2018, tried 3 project types, Basic MSI, InstallScript and InstallScript MSI.

I looked at InstallShield help titled "Specifying the Icon for the Setup Launcher" and specified an .ico file for setup.exe for all three project files:

  1. In the View List under Media, click Releases.
    1. In the Releases explorer, select the release that you want to configure.
    2. Click the Setup.exe tab.
    3. In the Setup.exe Icon File setting, specify the fully qualified name of the file that contains the icon that InstallShield should use when it creates the Setup.exe file at build time.

Now I see the icon displayed on the setup.exe. Next, I run setup.exe and see the icon in the task bar. But after a brief moment the icon switches back to the default InstallShield icon in the task bar.

Any idea how to keep the custom icon in the taskbar throughout the installation?

1
iconswindows-installerinstallshield
I would contact Installshield support for this, or try their forum community.installshield.com or perhaps Stefan Kruger's forum.installsite.net - (main site: installsite.org). - Stein Åsmul

1 Answers

0
votes

Each of the three project types you mentioned have different enough implementation details that their behavior can be completely different. Here's an overview of what I expect.

Basic MSI

The setup launcher shows some introductory information, including things like initialization and prerequisites, then turns over control to Windows Installer. Any icon you specify for the setup launcher only applies to the first part. Once Windows Installer takes over, you cannot control the icon it uses in the window or taskbar.

InstallScript MSI and InstallScript

The setup launcher here shows some introductory information, then launches the InstallScript UI. I can't recall the exact behavior, but unlike basic MSI, it's possible for InstallShield to control the icon in this case. There's some room for different behavior between a Single EXE and an uncompressed InstallScript project, but all build types of an InstallScript MSI should function the same as each other.

Suite / Advanced UI

You didn't mention this one, but it's similar to the InstallScript case: InstallShield controls the icons here. However I'm more certain that this one will continue using your launcher's icon as its own. It also has the ability to install a Basic MSI project, and thus may be able to do what you want today.

Explorer

Note that explorer sometimes caches icons from exes by filename, so can show an old version of your icon. This does not usually have any affect on the taskbar, however, so I don't think this is relevant to your question. If your exe shows the wrong icon, renaming the file or restarting the machine can sometimes get it to display correctly.