This is the first in what will probably end up being a series on InstallShield and the little things that are insanely painful in an otherwise very useful tool.

I had to add a screen to an installer I’m working on that had a notice regarding this versions compatibility with other versions on our hardware and software.  This screen has a rich text area with the notice and then a checkbox to indicate that you have read the message.  When the checkbox is checked by the user the next button is enabled.

Seems simple enough.  However, I soon discovered that when you add a new checkbox and give it a property that InstallShield creates the property in the property table and enter “0″ (zero) for the value.  Seems correct, right?  Well, the problem I encountered was that the checkbox was always checked when the screen was first loaded.  Turns out that the checkbox is checked if the property is anything other than an empty string.  Changing the default value in the property table from “0″ to “” made everything work as desired.