The game that I am working on has multiple requirements, including the code, jars, resources, etc. I want to know how to make an exe file that can install all of these components in the correct places. I believe that exe also needs to check that the latest version of java is installed on the user’s computer. How do I go about doing this?
You can use izpack for this purpose, its a cross-platform java installer. jMonkeyPlatform will sooner or later use izpack or the NetBeans installer tool to create multiplatform installer packages.
Still, many users expect the default installer for their system, so the desktop executables that can already be produced by jMonkeyPlatform packed with MSI (Windows) or the Installer Package Tool (MacOSX) for example would probably be the most professional solution.
For windows, you can use NSIS for installation. It’s very flexible and has alot of scripts for various common requirements:
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/
Right now its probably best to make MSI or MSI based installers for windows, its the best supported solution.
If NSIS supports MSI, you can use that. Otherwise you can generate them manually if you follow this documentation: