You can support further development of the software and help cover the website hosting costs by
making a small donation.
Bytessence InstallMaker
Bytessence InstallMaker is a freeware installer creator targeted at individual developers or small companies who need to package their software products for internet distribution.
BIM is very simple to use because it doesn't use scripts or other complicated installation mechanisms. All the installation and uninstallation details can be set up from a single program. If you don't have time to learn scripting languages and you need something quick for the software packaging job, there is a chance BIM can help you.
The installers generated with BIM can run programs, modify the registry, create shortcuts and internet links, register DLLs, add environment variables, install fonts and many others. In addition, the uninstaller module is able to automatically reverse all the changes to the user's PC.
Features
- 100% spyware and malware free
- Free for personal or corporate use
- Intuitive, multilingual interface
- Scriptless design (save time and maximize efficiency)
- Small installer overhead
- Powerful and fast ZIP compression
- No temporary files are used by the installer unlike other similar products
- Can check the operating system version, .NET framework version, running programs
- Advanced task management (create shortcuts, registry access, component registration, modify configuration files, etc.)
- Fully automated uninstaller, no configuration needed (it can also execute user-defined actions for additional uninstallation control)
- Customizable user interface for the installer (images, colours, background window, executable icon)
- Works on all major Windows(R) versions (NT4, 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista, 7)
- The installation data can be extracted with normal archivers (like 7-Zip)
- Computer restart capability
- Free e-mail support
System requirements
- 128 MB RAM memory available
- 400 MHz processor (or better)
- 10 MB of free Hard-Disk space
- Operating system: Windows(TM) NT 4.0, 98, Me, 2K, XP, Vista, 7 (32bit)
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher
Screenshots
 BIM's user interface |
 Settings page |
 Running a program |
 First page of the installer |
 Choosing the installation path |
 Start Menu configuration |
Click on the thumbnails to see the full-sized images.
What's new in version 4.30
- Minor interface changes
- Added a new graphics set
- Added Bulgarian, Czech and Turkish translations in the package
- Added 'Copy file' task for both installer and uninstaller
- Added 'Delete folder' task to uninstaller
- Added window class checking for closing active programs (to avoid false positives)
- Added 'Recent projects' menu
- Added option for saving window coordinates in the configuration dialog
- Added 8 new path variables (mostly for all-user paths)
- Added 'Tools' button on toolbar
- Added RTF Text Editor tool (for editing license / readme files)
- Added Hash Calculator tool (for generating hashes over installers)
- Added Window List tool (for getting window class names)
- Added expansion of OS environment variables (e.g. %PROGRAMFILES%)
- Added possibility to customize the Start menu group, uninstall shortcut and web link name
- Made some modifications to the Start Menu group page on the installer side
- The configuration file is now stored in the user's Application Data directory
- Made other minor fixes and optimizations
Download BIM
You can download BIM from the following links. Please uninstall older versions before installing the current build to avoid any problems.
| Version | Release date | Size | File type | Download |
| 4.30 | 05 Nov 2009 | 2466 KB | Executable installer |
If you want to link to the download, please link to this page instead of the file directly. Thank you.
Translations
BIM is available in the following languages (alphabetical order):
| Translation | Author | Download |
 Bulgarian |
Radoslav Stefanov | Included in the main package |
 Czech |
Libor Divis | Included in the main package |
 Dutch |
Michel Van Passel | |
 English |
Bytessence | Included in the main package |
 Finnish (Installer) |
Samu Voutilainen | Included in the main package |
 French |
Thomas Saigne | |
 German |
Matthias Broscheit | Included in the main package |
 Hellenic (Installer) |
Manos S. Pappas | |
 Hungarian |
Kerekes Balázs József Tamás Herczeg |
|
 Italian (Installer) |
Ricardo Cabrera | Included in the main package |
 Japanese (Installer) |
Vijay Atwater Vanness | Included in the main package |
 Portuguese/Brasilian (Installer) |
Hélio Márcio | Included in the main package |
 Romanian |
Bytessence | Included in the main package |
 Russian |
Popov Evgeniy Alekseevich | Included in the main package |
 Spanish |
Thissvald Guillermo | Included in the main package |
 Swedish |
Lasse C. | Included in the main package |
 Turkish |
Murat Elicaliskan (Installer), K.Deniz Yilmaz (complete) |
If you wish to contribute with language files you can translate one of the files from the Localization folder of your BIM installation (please see the FAQ section for more information).
Frequently asked questions
Q: How to translate BIM?
A: To localize BIM you can open the file called 'English.ini' from the 'Localization\' directory of your BIM installation and translate the lines. The files use the standard INI layout so you can use any raw text editor for translation (like Notepad). To make the job easy you can use IniTranslator, an open-source translation utility. After you finish, save the file with ANSI encoding. If you want to share it with other users you can send it in an archive at the support e-mail (see the Contact page) and it will be published here.
A: To localize BIM you can open the file called 'English.ini' from the 'Localization\' directory of your BIM installation and translate the lines. The files use the standard INI layout so you can use any raw text editor for translation (like Notepad). To make the job easy you can use IniTranslator, an open-source translation utility. After you finish, save the file with ANSI encoding. If you want to share it with other users you can send it in an archive at the support e-mail (see the Contact page) and it will be published here.
Q: How to install translations?
A: To install translations, unpack the archive to a temporary location (like the Desktop) and copy the extracted .INI file to the 'Localization\' directory of your BIM installation (for example 'C:\Program Files\Bytessence InstallMaker\Localization\'). After copying the file, restart the program if it was running then open the Settings dialog. At this time you should be able to see the name of the installed file in the translations box. To activate it, click the desired language in the list, press 'Accept' to save the settings then restart BIM.
A: To install translations, unpack the archive to a temporary location (like the Desktop) and copy the extracted .INI file to the 'Localization\' directory of your BIM installation (for example 'C:\Program Files\Bytessence InstallMaker\Localization\'). After copying the file, restart the program if it was running then open the Settings dialog. At this time you should be able to see the name of the installed file in the translations box. To activate it, click the desired language in the list, press 'Accept' to save the settings then restart BIM.
Q: How do i create shortcuts on the desktop?
A: To create a shortcut, go to the Advanced tasks section, enter a name for the shortcut (e.g. Desktop shortcut 1), select 'Create shortcut' from the task type drop-down box then click the 'Add' button. In the Shortcut output field type <Desktop>\MyProgram (replace MyProgram with the desired name). The rest of the fields can be filled just like in the help file. To see what locations are available for usage within BIM, see the Using BIM - Adding tasks - Path variables topic in the help file.
A: To create a shortcut, go to the Advanced tasks section, enter a name for the shortcut (e.g. Desktop shortcut 1), select 'Create shortcut' from the task type drop-down box then click the 'Add' button. In the Shortcut output field type <Desktop>\MyProgram (replace MyProgram with the desired name). The rest of the fields can be filled just like in the help file. To see what locations are available for usage within BIM, see the Using BIM - Adding tasks - Path variables topic in the help file.
Q: How do i create shortcuts in the start menu?
A: To create shortcuts in the Start menu, follow the same steps as above, but instead of using the <Desktop>\MyProgram path use <DefaultStartMenuGroup>\MyProgram.
A: To create shortcuts in the Start menu, follow the same steps as above, but instead of using the <Desktop>\MyProgram path use <DefaultStartMenuGroup>\MyProgram.
Q: I created my installer but when testing it complains there's no free space on the hard-disk. Why is that?
A: This problem is most probably caused by a fixed path filled in the Program installation path field (Product information tab). Instead of using a fixed path (e.g. C:\MyProgram\) for the output path, use path variables (e.g. <ProgramFiles>\MyProgram\). You can find information about the allowed path variables and why they must be used in the help file (Using BIM - Adding tasks - Path variables topic).
A: This problem is most probably caused by a fixed path filled in the Program installation path field (Product information tab). Instead of using a fixed path (e.g. C:\MyProgram\) for the output path, use path variables (e.g. <ProgramFiles>\MyProgram\). You can find information about the allowed path variables and why they must be used in the help file (Using BIM - Adding tasks - Path variables topic).
Q: What compression does BIM use?
A: The current version of BIM uses ZIP compression (via Zlib) because of its speed, reliability and popularity. ZIP compression is somewhere at the border between compression strength and speed, offering a bit of both. It is possible that in the future BIM will offer support for other compression formats like LZMA however this is not a priority at this particular moment.
A: The current version of BIM uses ZIP compression (via Zlib) because of its speed, reliability and popularity. ZIP compression is somewhere at the border between compression strength and speed, offering a bit of both. It is possible that in the future BIM will offer support for other compression formats like LZMA however this is not a priority at this particular moment.
Q: Why aren't other image formats supported for the installer logos?
A: For the moment only .bmp images are supported because the overhead of the bmp loader is very small compared to others like PNG (which adds an extra 100 kb to the installer module). At the same time the bmp files used by the module are compressed when creating the installers so their size will be much smaller in the final distribution.
A: For the moment only .bmp images are supported because the overhead of the bmp loader is very small compared to others like PNG (which adds an extra 100 kb to the installer module). At the same time the bmp files used by the module are compressed when creating the installers so their size will be much smaller in the final distribution.