feature

Features of the Upgraded Vim NSIS Installer

New features introduced by the upgraded Vim NSIS installer includes:

• Upgraded to Modern UI (MUI) 2.0. Now NSIS 2.34 is the minimum requirement.

• Installation/uninstallation are now performed natively with NSIS script.

  External install.exe and uninstal.exe are no longer necessary. This eliminates all ugly DOS command windows in installer/uninstaller.

• It's now possible to install both 32-bit and 64-bit version of the shell extension on 64-bit systems.

  This make it possible for 32-bit file explorer-like applications continue to use Vim context menu on 64-bit systems. This feature is suggested and tested by Leonardo Valeri Manera.

• Multiple language support (disabled by default).

  You can find detail on the language page.

• Install log.

  A detailed install log (vim-install.log) will be created for debug purpose.

• User can choose whether to remove or keep existing Vim version(s) using the component list directly.

• Uninstaller are executed from NSIS script directly.

• Better way to uninstall/upgrade shell extension DLL (using Library.nsh).

  Now the DLL will be move to Windows temporary directory before deletion. This makes it possible to remove Vim install directory even if the DLL cannot be removed without a reboot. It also solves the problem where newly installed DLL could be removed unintentionally after reboot.

• Detailed description for each component.

  MUI makes it possible to add detailed description for each component to be installed/removed. If you hover the mouse pointer over the component list, detailed description of those components will be shown. Such description is also used to explain the impact of component removal.

• Eliminated all pop-up message boxes used to ask for user input.

• Do not make any real change until all running instances of Vim have been closed.

• New artwork for the installer.

• Command line support.

  All install options that's available on GUI is also available on the command line. This is in fact part of [[silent mode| http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Docs/Chapter4.html#4.12]] support. Please refer to [[user manual | https://github.com/gpwen/vim-installer-mui2/raw/wiki-files/gen/vim73_install_manual.txt]] for detail.

• On-line user manual.

  If the installer is started with the /? or /HELP command line switch, it will drop a user manual named vim##_install_manual.txt in the current working directory. That manual is dynamically generated, it will list all features available in the installer accurately, which could be necessary as the installer support lots of build options. [[Here | https://github.com/gpwen/vim-installer-mui2/raw/wiki-files/gen/vim73_install_manual.txt]] is the example.

• Silent mode.

  The new installer has full support for [[silent mode| http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Docs/Chapter4.html#4.12]]. When run in such mode, no user interface will be shown. It's useful for unattended installation/uninstallation over large number of computers. Please refer to [[user manual | https://github.com/gpwen/vim-installer-mui2/raw/wiki-files/gen/vim73_install_manual.txt]] for detail.

• Accurate Uninstall.

  The uninstaller will remove only those files installed by the installer, nothing more, nothing less. That means if you installed some files in the Vim directory yourself, such as user manuals for other languages, they will be kept intact by the uninstaller.

  As comparison, the official uninstaller will remove files using wildcards, even remove directories recursively, which result in bogus removal if extra files have been installed by user.

Features to be Added Soon (TODO List)

• (TODO) Translation for more languages.