[Trial & Licensing] This authoring tool can create Windows Installer Packages and can convert Microsoft's ClickOnce deployment to the Developer Installation Manifest (DIM) format and a basic MSI Project, so that you can rebuild it using InstallShield Technology.

One of the very first third-party tool to create installation packages (either .exe or .msi), there are a series of Macrovision products that let's you create Windows Installer Packages for most Operating Systems, including Windows. Formerly reknowned as InstallShield Software Corporation, Macrovision Corporation acquired InstallShield on 2004. They now have a series of products: FLEXNet InstallShield, InstallAnywhere, FLEXNet Publisher, FLEXNet AdminStudio, FLEXNet Manager, FLEXNet Connecter and more. Out of all of them, as a Windows Installer Package developer, you may be concerned with FLEXNet InstallShield and FLEXNet AdminStudio in particular (that doesn't mean other products are not useful). FLEXNet InstallShield comes again with various flavors: FLEXnet® InstallShield® Windows, FLEXnet InstallShield Collaboration for Visual Studio®, FLEXnet InstallShield MultiPlatform etc. FLEXNet AdminStudio can create and manage the lifecycle of packages. Find more about each product and their capabilities directly at the vendor site: Macrovision

Still often termed as "InstallShield" by many developers, we typically agree that it's the most used authoring tool worldwide for creating installation packages, either .exe or .msi. They have their own engine (as like Windows Installer) that is capable of creating bootstrapper .exe's (and/or legacy setup packages) including excellent support for creating Windows Installer Packages. Added functionality are creating web-based installation packages including converting Microsoft's ClickOnce deployment to the Developer Installation Manifest (DIM) format and basic MSI Project so that you can rebuild it using InstallShield Technology. Check out the FORUMS section to find more about the Macrovision Line of Products.