Custom prerequsites to visual studio setup project

Question

I have a Visual Studio Setup project and have followed the steps mentioned in this link to load the Shared Add-in Support Update for the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (KB908002) to the prerequisites list. The entry appears but there is this following warning shown

No 'HomeSite' attribute has been provided for 'Shared Add-in Support Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (KB908002)', so the package will be published to the same location as the bootstrapper.

I use the Download component from the component vendor's website option. How do I set a homesite for this update so that the update is directly downloaded and installed. I do not want to distribute the update along with my setup.

Thanks

Answer 1

For the setup bootstrapper being able to download and install the files included in the KB908002 patch you would have to specify a HomeSite attribute for each of the files in the package description for the bootstrapper. This package description is contained in an XML file named package.xml in the following location (where v6.0A is the version of the SDK):

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper
    \Packages\KB908002\package.xml

The description lists the files included in the patch within the PackageFiles element. Each of the PackageFile elements can now have a HomeSite attribute specifying a download URL. However, as far as I know, Microsoft doesn't offer these files as an individual download, so you would have to host them on your own.

<PackageFiles CopyAllPackageFiles="false">
  <PackageFile Name="lockbackRegKey.msi" 
               HomeSite="http://myserver.com/lockbackRegKey.msi" /> 
  <PackageFile Name="extensibilityMSM.msi" 
               HomeSite="http://myserver.com/extensibilityMSM.msi" /> 
  <PackageFile Name="office2003-kb907417sfxcab-ENU.exe" 
               HomeSite="http://myserver.com/office2003-kb907417sfxcab-ENU.exe" /> 
  <PackageFile Name="VerifPrequisites.exe" 
               HomeSite="http://myserver.com/VerifPrequisites.exe" /> 
</PackageFiles>

Another option would be to distribute the files along with your setup - you can still distribute a single package. Just use a tool like IExpress (included with Windows) to generate a self-extracting package containing the patch, the MSI and the setup.exe bootstrapper (details here).