NSIS Users Manual

NSIS is a free scriptable win32 installer/uninstaller system that doesn't suck and isn't huge.

Check http://nsis.sf.net for news, information, support, examples, tutorials and more.

Quick links:
FAQ - A list of frequently asked questions
NSIS Wiki - Examples, functions, tutorials, plug-ins, software and more
Forum - Post questions or discuss NSIS features

Copyright (C) 1999-2023 Contributors

• Chapter 1: Introduction to NSIS
• About NSIS
• Main Features
• Feature List
• Unicode installers
• Chapter 2: Tutorial: The Basics
• Introduction
• Script Files
• Scripting structure
• Installer Attributes
• Pages
• Sections
• Functions
• Working with Scripts
• Script Execution
• Compiler Commands
• Compiler
• Modern UI
• Plug-ins
• More
• Chapter 3: Command Line Usage
• MakeNSIS Usage
• Options
• Notes
• Environment variables
• Examples
• Installer Usage
• Common Options
• Uninstaller Specific Options
• Examples
• Chapter 4: Scripting Reference
• Script File Format
• Variables
• User Variables
• Other Writable Variables
• Constants
• Constants Used in Strings
• Labels
• Relative Jumps
• Pages
• Ordering
• Page Options
• Callbacks
• Page
• UninstPage
• PageEx
• PageExEnd
• PageCallbacks
• Sections
• Section Commands
• Uninstall Section
• Functions
• Function Commands
• Callback Functions
• Installer Attributes
• General Attributes
• Compiler Flags
• Version Information
• Instructions
• Basic Instructions
• Registry, INI, File Instructions
• General Purpose Instructions
• Flow Control Instructions
• File Instructions
• Uninstaller Instructions
• Miscellaneous Instructions
• String Manipulation Instructions
• Stack Support
• Integer Support
• Reboot Instructions
• Install Logging Instructions
• Section Management
• User Interface Instructions
• Multiple Languages Instructions
• Multiple Languages
• Language Selection
• LangDLL Plug-in
• RTL Languages
• Plug-in DLLs
• Using Plug-in Commands
• Calling plug-ins manually
• Silent Installers/Uninstallers
• Chapter 5: Compile Time Commands
• Compiler Utility Commands
• !include
• !addincludedir
• !addplugindir
• !appendfile
• !cd
• !delfile
• !echo
• !error
• !assert
• !execute
• !makensis
• !packhdr
• !finalize
• !uninstfinalize
• !system
• !tempfile
• !getdllversion
• !gettlbversion
• !warning
• !pragma
• !verbose
• Predefines
• ${__COUNTER__}
• ${__FILE__}
• ${__FILEDIR__}
• ${__LINE__}
• ${__DATE__}
• ${__TIME__}
• ${__TIMESTAMP__}
• ${NSIS_VERSION}
• ${NSIS_PACKEDVERSION}
• ${NSIS_CHAR_SIZE}
• ${NSIS_PTR_SIZE}
• ${U+1}...${U+10FFFF}
• Scope Predefines
• Read environment variables
• $%envVarName%
• Conditional Compilation
• !define
• !undef
• !ifdef
• !ifndef
• !if
• !ifmacrodef
• !ifmacrondef
• !else
• !endif
• !insertmacro
• !macro
• !macroend
• !macroundef
• !searchparse
• !searchreplace
• Appendix A: Modern User Interface
• Appendix B: DLL/TLB Library Setup
• Introduction
• Library Installation
• Introduction
• Parameters
• Options
• Notes
• Example
• Library Uninstallation
• Introduction
• Parameters
• Options
• Example
• Visual Basic 6 Run-Time Files
• Appendix C: Useful Scripts
• Get Internet Explorer version
• Is .NET Framework installed?
• Is Macromedia Flash Player installed?
• Connect to the Internet
• Prevent Multiple Instances
• More
• Appendix D: Useful Information
• Error Levels
• Add uninstall information to Add/Remove Programs
• Calling an external DLL using the System.dll plug-in
• Dump Content of Log Window to File
• How to Read REG_MULTI_SZ Values
• Predefined Macros for Unicode support
• Appendix E: Useful Headers
• File Functions Header
• Introduction
• Locate
• GetSize
• DriveSpace
• GetDrives
• GetTime
• GetFileAttributes
• GetFileVersion
• GetExeName
• GetExePath
• GetParameters
• GetOptions
• GetOptionsS
• GetRoot
• GetParent
• GetFileName
• GetBaseName
• GetFileExt
• BannerTrimPath
• DirState
• RefreshShellIcons
• Text Functions Header
• Introduction
• LineFind
• LineRead
• FileReadFromEnd
• LineSum
• FileJoin
• TextCompare
• TextCompareS
• ConfigRead
• ConfigReadS
• ConfigWrite
• ConfigWriteS
• FileRecode
• TrimNewLines
• Word Functions Header
• Introduction
• WordFind
• WordFindS
• WordFind2X
• WordFind2XS
• WordFind3X
• WordFind3XS
• WordReplace
• WordReplaceS
• WordAdd
• WordAddS
• WordInsert
• WordInsertS
• StrFilter
• StrFilterS
• VersionCompare
• VersionConvert
• Appendix F: Changelog and Release Notes
• 3.11
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 3.10
• Changelog
• 3.09
• Changelog
• 3.08
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 3.07
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 3.06.1
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 3.06
• Changelog
• 3.05
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 3.04
• Changelog
• 3.03
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 3.02.1
• Changelog
• 3.02
• Changelog
• 3.01
• Changelog
• 3.0
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 3.0 Release Candidate 2
• Changelog
• 3.0 Release Candidate 1
• Changelog
• 3.0 Beta 3
• Changelog
• 3.0 Beta 2
• Changelog
• 3.0 Beta 1
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 3.0 Beta 0
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 3.0 Alpha 2
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 3.0 Alpha 1
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 3.0 Alpha 0
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.51
• Changelog
• 2.50
• Changelog
• 2.49
• Changelog
• 2.48
• Changelog
• 2.47
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.46
• Changelog
• 2.45
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.44
• Changelog
• 2.43
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.42
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.41
• Changelog
• 2.40
• Changelog
• 2.39
• Changelog
• 2.38
• Changelog
• 2.37
• Changelog
• 2.36
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.35
• Changelog
• 2.34
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.33
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.32
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.31
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.30
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.29
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.28
• Changelog
• 2.27
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.26
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.25
• Changelog
• 2.24
• Changelog
• 2.23
• Changelog
• 2.22
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.21
• Changelog
• 2.20
• Changelog
• 2.19
• Changelog
• 2.18
• Changelog
• 2.17
• Changelog
• 2.16
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.15
• Changelog
• 2.14
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.13
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.12
• Changelog
• 2.11
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.10
• Changelog
• 2.09
• Changelog
• 2.08
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.07
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.06
• Changelog
• 2.05
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.04
• Changelog
• 2.03
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.02
• Changelog
• 2.01
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.0
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.0 Release Candidate 4
• Changelog
• 2.0 Release Candidate 3
• Changelog
• 2.0 Release Candidate 2
• Changelog
• 2.0 Release Candidate 1
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.0 Beta 4
• Release Notes
• Changelog
• 2.0 Beta 3
• 2.0 Beta 2
• 2.0 Beta 1
• 2.0 Beta 0
• 2.0 Alpha 7
• 2.0 Alpha 6
• 2.0 Alpha 5
• 2.0 Alpha 4
• 2.0 Alpha 3
• 2.0 Alpha 2
• 2.0 Alpha 1
• 2.0 Alpha 0
• Older Versions
• Appendix G: Building NSIS
• Building in General
• Building on Windows
• Building on POSIX
• Nightly Builds
• Appendix H: Credits
• Programmers
• Testers
• Designers
• Translators
• Writers
• Appendix I: License
• Copyright
• Applicable licenses
• zlib/libpng license
• bzip2 license
• Common Public License version 1.0
• Special exception for LZMA compression module