evaluating Visual studio's software setup packaging tool (setup project/ Web setup project)

i was in the process of evaluating different tools available for creating the setup package for a newly developed software. i came to know about the visual studio's setup project facility, but couldnt get much help on its capabilities.

Can someone tell me if this tool helps me achieve the below given features

1. copy/paste files and folders.
2. create a text file, and input certain values to it.
3. make/update entries to the registery
4. chec开发者_如何学Pythonk for certain services running on the local/remote system
5. reading certain environment variables from the system.
6. running a third party application.
7. what script language does it support

Other than Visual Studio, I had evaluated InstallShield which does provide support for all the above mentioned actions. But Visual Studio is already available, I was curious to find if it matches InstallShield in capability?

Here is the Visual Studio support:

1. Supported
2. Not supported
3. Supported
4. Not supported
5. Not supported
6. Somewhat supported ( supports prerequisites )
7. No scripting support

What is not supported can be implemented through custom actions (custom code).

The custom code is in form of custom actions, which can be DLLs, batch files, executables or VBScripts, with DLLs being the method recommended by microsoft, written in C/C++. Here is some more information on what custom actions are and how such custom actions are integrated with the installer: Custom Actions

If you want an alternative, you can try Advanced Installer. It supports everything you need and it's cheaper than InstallShield.