Instaallshield alternitive

Does anyone know of a good alternitive (and by good alternitive, i'm looking into the "free as possible catagory") of installshield? For those of you who may not know what this is, its the application that makes those handy little install packages for installing everything from photoshop to doombuilder. The one on their main side is rediciously expensive, so, does anyone know of a better alternitive?

You could look into making your own packages with Microsoft's already-available tools. Or you can look into the Nullsoft installer system (used for Winamp and a variety of other programs).

A couple of years ago I used ZeroG's InstallAnywhere, which was free for non-commercial users. I found it excellent, and easy to use.

Now, I haven't tried it since, but if it's still around then in all likelihood it will still be well worth a look. HTH.

Nullsoft installer:
http://nsis.sourceforge.net

Heh I just use the bootstrapper that comes with VS.NET

You can use MSI packages (Microsoft Installer). There's also Ghost Installer Free Edition which I've used, once.

I would code my own...

I recommend NSIS, especially over others like Windows Installer (which is unreliable from my experience) and ClickTeam Install Maker (which is shareware).

Inno Setup ( http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php ) along with ISTool ( http://www.istool.org/default.aspx/ ) are simply great. NSIS pales in comparison to it IMO. It's source code is even available in Borland Delphi 2.5.

I used to use Install Maker by Clickteam. I was quite happy with it. I see it's been updated to Install Creator which I haven't tried.

http://www.clickteam.com/English/install_creator.htm

Any install sheild alternative that keeps track of registry access or changes?