Question

I’m looking for Qt packager for my Qt application targeted for windows platform.
I need it to create a nice installer to deploy and distribute my product on windows PC.
Which is best and recommended FREE packager?

Answer 1

For packaging I use the WIX (Windows Installer XML) toolset.

There are several advantages to using WIX:

• Free and open-source
• Creates MSI files, which allows your application to be easily deployed across large networks and correctly uninstalls (also very important)
• Supported and developed by Microsoft, it is used by several other Microsoft teams internally, e.g the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview installer features some of the latest WIX features
• XML configuration allows reuse of components of installers (sets of files, feature sets)
• Several types of user interface, new wizard pages can be created
• Integrates into Visual Studio
• Integrates into MSBuild – can allow consistent packaging to ensure you don’t ship debug versions

I have used WIX for installers at work and for my own projects at home.

It isn’t as simple as other solutions to get started, but once you’ve created a simple package, you’ll find it easy to add new features.