I never messed with InstallShield but I have used NSIS (free), Wix (free), and Advanced Installer (paid). Advanced Installer is absolutely worth it in my opinio

I never messed with InstallShield but I have used NSIS (free), Wix (free), and Advanced Installer (paid). Advanced Installer is absolutely worth it in my opinion, although it still has trouble hiding the nightmare of Windows installers. NSIS syntax is a cross between PHP and assembly. Wix is literally an attempt to program a database using XML. That's three things that don't fit together well. Part of the problem is that most Windows installers are based off MSIs, and MSIs were made for MS Office by some engineers who thought relational databases were cool, so they made everything in MSI be a relational table.