Ansgar
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:20 pm

Dated look of UI with classic theme

Mon Apr 11, 2022 12:38 pm

Hi,
Some UI elements of the classic theme look like straight out of Windows 3.11, like the icons and gradient on the feature selection, or even the "Info" MessageBox icon. The border of the MessageBox looks broken, too. See attachments.
featureList.png
featureList.png (14.5KiB)Viewed 2225 times
messageBox.png
messageBox.png (13.71KiB)Viewed 2225 times
Until recently we used a very old version of AI, so I thought that was the reason, but the recent upgrade did not improve things.

Of course there are other themes to choose from, but they seem to be incompatible with msi. Also, we generally like the classic layout.
Why does it not use current OS icons? Can they be changed somehow?

Regards,
Ansgar

Catalin
Posts: 6509
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Dated look of UI with classic theme

Mon Apr 11, 2022 1:50 pm

Hello Ansgar,

The Windows Installer (MSI) technology is very old itself and its UI is indeed outdated.

However, no improvements have been done in this regard and therefore we can not really do much ourselves.

In order to get a better looking UI, the only solution would be to use our predefined themes, but as you mentioned, they require our EXE bootstrapper because the MSI technology simply can not render them.

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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Ansgar
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:20 pm

Re: Dated look of UI with classic theme

Mon Apr 11, 2022 2:20 pm

Hi Catalin,

thanks for the answer.

I find that a bit surprising, I would have assumed that MSI would use resources from the underlying OS rather than embedding its own old dialogs.
But if that's the way it is, then that's the way it is. ;)

One other question, I noticed that even the feature list does not seem to be MSI compatible... while it builds as an MSI without problems, I get this on execution:
tabHost.png
tabHost.png (7.97KiB)Viewed 2215 times

Any way I can fix this? I guess I'm doing something wrong, for if that was truly unsupported, I guess the MSI shouldn't be building the first place...

Regards,
Ansgar

Catalin
Posts: 6509
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Dated look of UI with classic theme

Tue Apr 12, 2022 12:52 pm

Hello Ansgar,

Please note that the Tab Host control requires the "Enhanced User Interface" (our EXE bootstrapper) option in order to be rendered.

As per the above linked article, not all the controls can be rendered by the MSI.

Please let me know if you have any other questions and I will gladly assist.

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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Ansgar
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:20 pm

Re: Dated look of UI with classic theme

Wed Apr 13, 2022 4:09 pm

Hi Catalin,

thanks again for the answer.

1. I would expect that if the "Enhanced User Interface" is activated, an MSI does not build. The way it is now, it builds without errors, but results in a faulty installer. I'm sure you'll agree that's not optimal.

2. I did not actually choose a tabbed layout. It was generated this way when I added a feature selection. Can I configure it in a way that does not use tabbing? Like using two consecutive dialogs instead? Or even omit the install path tab entirely?

Thanks and regards
Ansgar

Catalin
Posts: 6509
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Dated look of UI with classic theme

Thu Apr 14, 2022 2:43 pm

Hello Ansgar,

Indeed, if the user changes the output type from EXE to MSI, it will build just fine.

I will discuss this with our developer to see how this can be improved.

Now, regarding your second request, I'm afraid that all our feature-selection dialogs use the Enhanced User Interface.

The solution for this would be to create your own custom dialog that uses controls that can be rendered in an MSI (e.g. checkbox controls).

More details about this in the following article:

How to show a custom feature selection dialog

Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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Catalin
Posts: 6509
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Dated look of UI with classic theme

Thu Apr 14, 2022 2:50 pm

Hello,

After some more tests, it looks like you could also use the "SetupTypeDlg" dialog, which is available for MSI.

In this dialog, if the user selects "Custom" installation, it will display the "CustomizeDlg", which can be displayed on MSI.

Hope it helps!

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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Ansgar
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:20 pm

Re: Dated look of UI with classic theme

Wed Apr 20, 2022 2:33 pm

Hello Catalin,

you are correct, "SetupTypeDialog" works. I also tried some of the other dialogs and I think what I will do is use a "FolderDlg" followed by an "OptionalFeatsDlg". This seems to work with MSI and can replace my "ConfigureDlg" with the tabs.

Thanks for your help!

Regards
Ansgar

Catalin
Posts: 6509
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Dated look of UI with classic theme

Wed Apr 20, 2022 3:40 pm

You are always welcome, Ansgar!

Glad I could help.

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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