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304

answers:

3

The installer for my .NET app consists of two file MyApp.msi and setup.exe. I want to have a single installer MyApp.exe (self extracting archive will do) with a specified icon. How can I do that? Is there any free tool available?

+5  A: 

InnoSetup and NSIS are free tools for creating application setups.

For InnoSetup, ISTool makes it very easy to create setup scripts.

Alan Haggai Alavi
Do these tools create single-file installers?
Robert Harvey
@Robert Harvey: Yes.
Alan Haggai Alavi
Do they support MSI? Last time I checked, at least InnoSetup didn't. But the poster with the numeric name already has an MSI, so he would need InnoSetup or NSIS just for the self-extraction and calling msiexec, I guess.
OregonGhost
@OregonGhost: I am not entirely sure about the support. However, the setup executable created with InnoSetup can execute the MSI once it has extracted the files.
Alan Haggai Alavi
Thanks a lot!!!! That worked like magic!!!!!!
iJeeves
i mean inno setup
iJeeves
No problem. Glad to be of help. :-)
Alan Haggai Alavi
+1  A: 

Technically the MSI is a single-file installer. It can be double-clicked to install the application. Setup.exe just launches the MSI.

Robert Harvey
Unfortunately, double-clicking an MSI won't upgrade to a later version. It will fail instead with a message indicating that the application is already installed. That's why you typically supply an exe file.
OregonGhost
That makes sense.
Robert Harvey
+2  A: 

A couple that I've seen:

Samuel Jack