Enhanced User Interface

Controls Transparency

When using the regular Windows Installer UI only text controls can be placed onto a image. When using Enhanced UI all other controls like icon, check-box or radio-button are also transparent. This will allow you to design any background image for you pages.

Large Icons

You can use true color icons as large as 256x256 pixels on Windows Vista or above, and 128x128 on older operating systems.

Enhanced Check-Box & Radio Buttons

Only when using Enhanced UI, the check-box & radio button controls are rendered with colored text, as specified by their text-styles.

Command Link Control

Windows Vista came with an improved UI with a new look and new dialogs and controls. One of these controls are the Command Links.

A command link is composed of three parts:

• Icon, which usually is an arrow but it can be a custom icon too. Please check the Attributes page to see how you can customize the icon.
• Name (or maybe a short description of what it does).
• Long explanatory description of the action.

Their interface is similar to regular links, they don't have a frame which offers a clean UI appearance.

They are usually used to move on to the next step in a task (wizards and pages flows) or to close a window (dialog box).

Their format is similar to the radio buttons, but in the same time quite different. A radio button group always has a commit button attached compared to the Command Links where the choice and actions are included in the same button. This is why a Next button will not be required. Because they are similar to the radio buttons, they should always be used in sets and not individually.

As they represent an improvement introduced with Windows Vista their look will be different on earlier operating systems but their functionality will be maintained. Only their appearance will be affected by the version of the operating system.

For example, on a version of Windows XP, the description is a tool-tip and it will be visible only on mouse-over compared to Vista or above, where this description is always visible under the Action text. Another difference is the actual look of the button, which is no longer a lightweight button, being likely a Push button with an icon attached.

Quick Feature Selection Tree With Check-Boxes

This new feature selection tree control uses check-boxes instead of menu items to install/remove a feature.

Each feature has a check-box associated with it, which will control the installation state of a feature. If the check-box attached to a feature is checked that means the feature will be installed, otherwise, that feature will not be available after the installation. A check-box comes with intuitive icons for the installation state. If you chose to install a feature you will see the icon of a drive with an arrow and if you chose not to install that feature you will get an “X” icon.

The Quick Selection Tree provides a quicker and more efficient way for the end-users to install a product. It also offers a more attractive way for the novice users to manage an installation.

Another UI option is that you can choose whether or not it will have a border - as well as for any other tree or list. Choosing not to have a border, your control will look like it is somehow integrated in that dialog and will provide more eye candy appearance to your product installation.

Prerequisite Selector Control

The Prerequisite Selector displays the feature-based prerequisites states. It also allows the user to select which prerequisite to install.

Prerequisites are displayed together with additional information like: required versions, versions found on target computer and action that will be performed.

Check List Control

This control is a regular list box with check-boxes, that enables the user to make a multiple selection from a list of predetermined values. When multiple items are selected, their comma separated values will be stored in the property specified in the "Property Name" field. You can customize the separator token to be used for multiple selected values.

Hyperlink Control

The Hyperlink control displays a HTML link to an address, which opens in the default browser on the target computer. Links are not supported for protocols other than HTTP. When using the Hyperlink control with Enhanced UI your package will be able to run on all OS and Windows Installer versions, as opposed to the standard Windows Installer UI, that limits its usage to version 5.0 or higher. Also, using Enhanced UI allows better transparency rendering for this control type.

HTML Host Control

The HTML Host control displays a HTML page from a given URL or a local file. The associated HTML page can be static or dynamic by using JavaScript (embedded or external).

Tab Host

The Tab Host control includes a list of child dialogs. The child dialogs' titles represent the tab's name in the control, whereas each dialog's content will be displayed when the user selects its corresponding tab.

With this control the user can choose to navigate to the dialog's tab inside the Tab Host control, only if he wishes to customize its associated settings.

The tabs content and visibility inside the Tab Host control can be defined and conditioned from the "Child Dialogs" Dialog. This dialog can be accesed from the Tab Host control's "Child Dialogs..." context menu or by double clicking it in the dialog editor.

Vertical Line Control

Displays a vertical etched line.

Multiple Selection Lists

Allows more than one item at a time to be selected from a List Box or List View control. When multiple items are selected, their comma separated values will be stored in the property specified in the "Property Name" field. You can customize the separator token to be used for multiple selected values.

Native (OS) Browse Folder Dialog

The Browse Folder dialog is now displayed using the operating system predefined dialogs so the user can select the install location in a very familiar and easy to use dialog.

Enforced "License Agreement" Lecture

The scrollable text that usually displays the license agreement will now set the attached property when it will be scrolled to the last line. A control condition based on the scrollable text property can be used to enable the agree control. This is a good way to make sure that the users have read your licensing terms.

Highly UAC Compliant

The Enhanced User Interface prompts for credentials only when required.

Installation Overall Progress

The standard installation progress resets itself several times during an installation. When using Enhanced UI the installation progress can be displayed as accurate as possible using the AiGlobalProgress event.