MSI installer for .Net free or low cost!

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+1 Q:

MSI installer for .Net free or low cost!

Hi I'm looking to deploy my first .Net 4.0 app. I know VS comes with an installer project and a free version of InstallShield, however the free version of install shield doesn't do what I need, or so I think, and the MS installer is end of life so don't want to learn it!

What is everyone using? I have in the past used NSIS but it doesn't build MSI's and it was a problem to some people who wanted it as an MSI.

Here is what I need to do during installation, in addition to the normal stuff: manipulate an XML file on the target machine. Call a COM object

Any recommendations (i don't have 150+ to spend on an installer)?

+6 A:

WiX is free (as in speech and as in beer), but you're going to hate the learning curve.

You can definitely modify XML files, though.

Mark Rushakoff 2010-10-03 13:27:30

thanks I will look, but I was hoping for a nice gui easy to learn installer :(

Adrian 2010-10-03 13:32:29

Not if he reads Alex Shevchuk's wonderful Wix tutorials. http://blogs.technet.com/b/alexshev/archive/2008/02/10/from-msi-to-wix.aspx

Matthew Ferreira 2010-10-03 13:34:04

@Matthew: At a glance, your link does seem to be easier than http://www.tramontana.co.hu/wix/, which was what I tried before switching back to InnoSetup again. I'll probably check that out next time I need an installer though.

Mark Rushakoff 2010-10-03 13:48:55

I actually found WiX much easier to learn and use than any of the commercial installation builders. The problem I had with all the GUI interfaces was that I was constantly hunting though tree structures for what I wanted to do whereas with WiX, it's all in an XML file just staring you in the face.

Ferruccio 2010-10-03 13:51:44

Isn't an XML document a tree structure?

Christopher Painter 2010-10-04 12:32:33

+1 A:

You may or may not have found this already, but it is possible to execute Custom Actions in the InstallShield Limited Edition version bundled with VS2010, using a deployed EXE, VBScript or JavaScript.

The number of points at which you can execute the custom action are greatly reduced in the free version, but should enable you to write the appropriate code to modify the XML file and call the COM object as you require.

Custom actions item can be found in Solution Explorer tree for the InstallShield project, under (5) Define Setup Requirements and Actions.

Simon 2010-10-03 15:13:57

Thanks had missed that!

Adrian 2010-10-04 11:31:57

If you don't need to customize your UI and you are ok with having only 1 feature, I think InstallShield 2010LE is extremely powerful and free. The trick is to know that 1) .PRQ files are XML you can you greatly extend the bootstrapper capabilities and 2) Since it can consume merge modules you can build WiX merge modules and inject all kinds of capability into the installer including custom tables and full authoring of custom actions.

Christopher Painter 2010-10-04 12:34:36

I have had great success with this tool. It has a free version that has many capabilities out of the box. I think it will do the job for you.

http://www.advancedinstaller.com/

Here is the feature matrix, to tell you what you don't get with the free version:

Feature Matrix

RyBolt 2010-10-03 15:51:01

InstallShield 2010LE can consume merge modules which means you can combine it with WiX to inject things into it that it wasn't intended to do. Also it compliments WiX nicely in that it has the bootstrapper that WiX does not.

If your installer is really simple I'd be willing to set it up for you intially for the cost of a nice lunch.

Christopher Painter 2010-10-04 12:31:55

ansaurus

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MSI installer for .Net free or low cost!

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