Registry

If you want certain registry keys to be created by the installation program, add them to the registry page.

In addition to adding literal string, dword and binary values, you can also dynamically store information about the installation. In particular, you can store paths to folders and file names so your application knows where it was installed. To do so, simply create a string value, and make the value start with one of the standard folder names that you can use on the Files page. E.g. to store the path to myprog.exe in the installation folder, create a string value of %APPFOLDER%\myprog.exe

The Registry page supports two additional folders that you cannot use on the Files page. These are %SETUPFOLDER% and %SETUPDRIVE%. You can use these values to store the folder and the drive that the setup.exe was on at the time of installation. You can use these registry values to pass the installation source to your application, e.g. to access additional files that are not part of the setup.exe, but are put on the same CD.

For every third-level and deeper registry key, you can specify that it must be completely deleted upon uninstallation. When your application is uninstalled, the key and all of its values and subkeys will be deleted, whether they were added by DeployMaster or not. An ever-increasing Windows registry can noticeably slow down the operating system, so your users will appreciate it if your software really cleans up after itself and also removes registry items.

The uninstaller will also remove the individual registry values that you have added on the Registry page, even if you did not activate the option to have the value's parent key deleted upon uninstallation. If you want to have the uninstaller remove specific values, you can add "dummy" values to the Registry page. These values will not be created or modified upon installation, but will be removed upon uninstallation.

Note that DeployMaster will also create several other registry keys and values:

• It will add or change keys and values under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT to register the file types your software uses.
• Your software will be added to the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel, so the user can uninstall it from there.
• Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\JGsoft\DeployIT, it will create a string value indicating the deployment log file, using the application name specified under Project as the value's name. This value is used by DeployMaster to see if your application has already been installed.

This information is used by DeployMaster to be able to update or uninstall your software and is, of course, automatically removed when your software is uninstalled.