edus
8th July 2013 22:13 UTC

New to NSIS - Question about Installer based on zip
Hi there,

I'm very new to NSIS,

I made an installer based on a zip using the NSIS interface. All went well. But I wanted to further edit that and add more features to the script, then realized I had no script hehe. Just the .exe

Is there any way to decompile and edit an .exe made in NSIS?

If i had an example/starter script based on zip I would be in business, but I could not find a starter script for installer based on zip to edit. Kind of lost.

Any assistance would be much appreciated, thanks.

MSG
9th July 2013 09:41 UTC

To learn NSIS, start with examining NSIS\Examples\Example1.nsi and Example2.nsi. Find out what all commands do, using the command reference: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Docs/Chapter4.html

Once you know what all the commands in those Examples do, and why, you will be well on your way to understanding NSIS. You might want to look into using LogicLib, next. And if you can't figure out how to do something specific, you're always free to ask.

edus
9th July 2013 19:02 UTC

Thanks for the reply, but is there a way to edit the script from that .exe?

It would be great if that "installer based on zip" would output the .exe AND the editable .NSI script.

Ok, I do have a specific question, what are the commands that tell nsis to make a simpler installer based on zip?

Like i was saying in my original post, the installer works fine, but I want to edit and expand on it.

MSG
10th July 2013 09:28 UTC

An NSI script of the zip-to-nsis converter wouldn't do you much good. It wouldn't contain anything more than the example scripts, anyway. In my experienced opinion, your fastest way to success is to study examples 1 and 2.

To answer your specific questions:
1) No, you cannot decompile an NSIS exe into a readable script.
2) No, the zip-to-nsis converter does not output readable script files.
3) While it is possible to make an installer that extracts a zip archive (using one of the zip plugins), it is probably a much better idea to extract the zip on your machine, and use the File command to pack all the unzipped files *directly* into your installer exe. It'll be faster, smaller, and much much easier. (You'll learn how to use the File command properly by looking at the Example script files.)

edus
10th July 2013 21:37 UTC

Will I have to manually enter each file into the script, or will one of the commands read a folder full of files and pack?

Here is what I need, making an installer for some voice scripts. The installer would just extract the folder and files to the Documents folder.

Thanks again

edus
10th July 2013 22:47 UTC

Cool thanks a lot MSG, I got it all working just like you said it could, at first it did not seem like the examples would help but then it all made sense. :)

Used this command to pack all the files.

File /r "c:\MyProject\MyApp\*"