{"slug": "nsis", "name": "NSIS", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.69, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-05-11", "latest": "2026-05-12", "why": "It was quite the fun experience and I'm pleasantly surprised that NSIS is supported to this day", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It was quite the fun experience and I'm pleasantly surprised that NSIS is supported to this day", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "sourceforge.io", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://nsis.sourceforge.io", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["NSIS"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 769763392, "item_id": 48110212, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48110212", "by": "Uptrenda", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "NDIS is extremely elegant and runs on just about every windows version.", "excerpt": "NDIS is extremely elegant and runs on just about every windows version. It also has plugin support for almost anything you can imagine. I used it for my concept project of building a re-usable installer for python modules: it takes the installers own file name as the input for what python module to install. So you can basically have a new installer for any python module just by renaming a file https://github.com/robe", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows installers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nullsoft, 1997-2004 AOL kills off the last maverick tech company (2004)"}, {"id": 769681840, "item_id": 48105115, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48105115", "by": "cornholio", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the performance and compression advantages of NSIS were so great that it was a clear choice", "excerpt": "I used to do the CodeWarrior installer for Freescale/NXP embedded product lines in the 2010s and InstallShield became completely unworkable as a tool for a massive dev tool. Even today, a 400MB+ installer is difficult, let alone in the age of mechanical HDDs. I had to chose between NSIS and Wix - and while native installers were clearly the future even back then, the performance and compression advantages of NSIS wer", "context": "", "use_case": "Installer creation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nullsoft, 1997-2004 AOL kills off the last maverick tech company (2004)"}, {"id": 769601056, "item_id": 48100066, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48100066", "by": "zedpm", "date": "2026-05-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "NSIS is awesome and my team is still using it", "excerpt": "Yep, NSIS is awesome and my team is still using it to package Windows builds of at least two apps. I was pleasantly surprised to see Tauri [0] includes NSIS as one of its built-in installer options. 0 - https://tauri.app/ 1 - https://tauri.app/distribute/windows-installer/", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows installer packaging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nullsoft, 1997-2004 AOL kills off the last maverick tech company (2004)"}, {"id": 769595360, "item_id": 48099710, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48099710", "by": "p2detar", "date": "2026-05-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It was quite the fun experience and I'm pleasantly surprised that NSIS is supported to this day", "excerpt": "Additionally to Winamp, I guess what I will always remember Nullsoft with is also \"NSIS - Nullsoft Scriptable Install System\" [0]. In a previous job I sat down, read the docs and wrote a Windows-Installer for our product using this thing, since management didn't want to pay for InstallShield. What made quite an impression on me back then was the fact that the scripting language somewhat resembles assembly. [1] Also, ", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows installer", "switched_from": "InstallShield", "story": "Nullsoft, 1997-2004 AOL kills off the last maverick tech company (2004)"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["windows installers", "installer creation", "windows installer packaging", "windows installer"], "compared": [], "makers": [{"id": 797643809, "item_id": 49852738, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49852738", "by": "Uptrenda", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the original NSIS code I wrote", "excerpt": "By \"design\" I mean choosing how the software works and the engineering trade-offs. I didn't type \"make install system\" into claude. I designed how the software worked based on my past research and my engineering knowledge. This included the original NSIS code I wrote: https://github.com/robertsdotpm/win-auto-py3 and file-based meta-data data here: https://robertsdotpm.github.io/software_engineering/program_names_as_i", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows installer", "switched_from": "", "story": "TiddlyInstall: A universal, reusable, install system"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48060077", "title": "Nullsoft, 1997-2004 AOL kills off the last maverick tech company (2004)", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49851879", "title": "TiddlyInstall: A universal, reusable, install system", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 769763392, "item_id": 48110212, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48110212", "by": "Uptrenda", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "NDIS is extremely elegant and runs on just about every windows version.", "excerpt": "NDIS is extremely elegant and runs on just about every windows version. It also has plugin support for almost anything you can imagine. I used it for my concept project of building a re-usable installer for python modules: it takes the installers own file name as the input for what python module to install. So you can basically have a new installer for any python module just by renaming a file https://github.com/robe", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows installers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nullsoft, 1997-2004 AOL kills off the last maverick tech company (2004)"}, {"id": 769681840, "item_id": 48105115, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48105115", "by": "cornholio", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the performance and compression advantages of NSIS were so great that it was a clear choice", "excerpt": "I used to do the CodeWarrior installer for Freescale/NXP embedded product lines in the 2010s and InstallShield became completely unworkable as a tool for a massive dev tool. Even today, a 400MB+ installer is difficult, let alone in the age of mechanical HDDs. I had to chose between NSIS and Wix - and while native installers were clearly the future even back then, the performance and compression advantages of NSIS wer", "context": "", "use_case": "Installer creation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nullsoft, 1997-2004 AOL kills off the last maverick tech company (2004)"}, {"id": 769601056, "item_id": 48100066, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48100066", "by": "zedpm", "date": "2026-05-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "NSIS is awesome and my team is still using it", "excerpt": "Yep, NSIS is awesome and my team is still using it to package Windows builds of at least two apps. I was pleasantly surprised to see Tauri [0] includes NSIS as one of its built-in installer options. 0 - https://tauri.app/ 1 - https://tauri.app/distribute/windows-installer/", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows installer packaging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nullsoft, 1997-2004 AOL kills off the last maverick tech company (2004)"}, {"id": 769595360, "item_id": 48099710, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48099710", "by": "p2detar", "date": "2026-05-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It was quite the fun experience and I'm pleasantly surprised that NSIS is supported to this day", "excerpt": "Additionally to Winamp, I guess what I will always remember Nullsoft with is also \"NSIS - Nullsoft Scriptable Install System\" [0]. In a previous job I sat down, read the docs and wrote a Windows-Installer for our product using this thing, since management didn't want to pay for InstallShield. What made quite an impression on me back then was the fact that the scripting language somewhat resembles assembly. [1] Also, ", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows installer", "switched_from": "InstallShield", "story": "Nullsoft, 1997-2004 AOL kills off the last maverick tech company (2004)"}]}