ANN: Inno Setup 6.3 released

[marti...@gmail.com]

Hi all,

As a developer working on Inno Setup for almost 25 years, I am happy to announce the release of Inno Setup 6.3, which includes a large number of improvements. I would also like to the opportunity to thank you all for your feedback, support, and contributions over these years! They have been invaluable in shaping Inno Setup into the advanced installer it is today. A special acknowledgement goes to Jordan Russell, who has been dedicated to this project for an even more remarkable 27 years.

For the complete list of what's new/changed, see: https://jrsoftware.org/files/is6-whatsnew.htm

Download: https://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php

Here is a summary of the key changes:

• UTF-8 Encoding Improvements: UTF-8 without BOM is now fully supported for various file types, including script (.iss), message files (.isl), and more. The Compiler IDE defaults to saving new script files in this format. Additionally, new support functions for UTF-8 are included in Pascal Scripting and ISPP.

• Arm64 Systems Support: There's now official support for the installation of x64 apps on Arm64 Windows 11 systems. New identifiers such as 'x64compatible' and support for boolean expressions in the Architecture directives enhance the flexibility for targeting different system architectures. To enable your x64 app installers to run properly on Arm64 Windows 11, now only some minor changes are needed in your scripts.

• Compiler IDE Enhancements: The IDE can now open up to 20 #include files in tabs which can now be closed. Various other improvements include new navigation buttons, dark mode enhancements, Visual Studio-style shortcut support, highlighting of occurrences of the current word or selection, multiple selection support (Ctrl+Left Mouse Click or Ctrl+Left Mouse Drag), two new tools to generate [Files] and [Registry] entries, and updates to the New Script Wizard. Additionally, breakpoints are now preserved between sessions and the icons used by the editor's gutter have been modernized.

• Dropped Support: Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Itanium architecture support have been removed.

• Logging Improvements: A new 'logoutput' flag for [Run] and [UninstallRun] sections allows for logging of program outputs. Additionally, there's a new UninstallLogging directive for always generating uninstallation logs, and enhancements to logging program executions in the Compiler IDE, Pascal Scripting, and ISPP demonstrated by the new PowerShell.iss example script.

• Other Notable Changes: These include a new 'signcheck' flag for the [Files] section, strengthened defence against DLL preloading, various improved icons, and an official Korean translation. Also, a range of Pascal Scripting functions have been introduced or improved, and a new control has been added which can display multi-line text with embedded links.

Grateful for the support, I'm eager to continue advancing Inno Setup together.

To contribute, consider a donation at https://www.jrsoftware.org/isdonate.php. Thank you!

Greetings,
Martijn Laan