How to access information entered during setup? (VS2008 setup project)

Answer 1

When you say " added a simple dialog window to the install's UI with textboxes", I'm assuming you added a custom action and associated installer class.

This snippet from this MSDN article, shows how:

To create a custom action

1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Project.

2. In the New Project dialog box, select Visual Basic in the Project Types pane, and then choose Class Library in the Templates pane. In the Name box, type PassData.

The project is added to Solution Explorer.

To create an installer class

1. On the Project menu, click Add Class.

   In the Add New Item dialog box, choose Installer Class. Accept the default name.

2. When the installer class appears on the design surface, right-click the design surface and click View Code to view the file contents in the code editor.

3. Add the following procedure to override the Install procedure of the base class

   Public Overrides Sub Install(ByVal stateSaver As System.Collections.IDictionary)

       MyBase.Install(stateSaver) 
       Dim myInput As String = Me.Context.Parameters.Item("Message") 
       If myInput Is Nothing Then 
           myInput = "There was no message specified"  
       End If 
       MsgBox(myInput) 
   End Sub