Back in 2005 I worked on a dotnet desktop application. At the time I was looking for installers to create the install package. During my search I cam across a neat tool that would bind your application with dotnet itself only including the parts of dotnet that were required for the application to run. It did this using dependency resolut...
I've created an MSI that installs our application. It installs fine if you run it locally on a machine with Windows XP SP2 or SP3. If you run it through SMS to a machine that has Windows XP SP2 it installs fine. But, if you try to run it through SMS to a machine that has Windows XP SP3 it seems to stall and take hours. (It only takes a c...
When including .NET 2.0 as a dependency in a setup project, the project is able to automatically download .NET 2.0 from the web if the machine needs it. The attribute that tells the setup project where this download location is does not seem to exist for .NET 2.0 SP1. Does a 'homesite' location exist for .NET 2.0 SP1? It makes the d...
How can I find what's hanging all new installations on a Windows box? While testing an installation script on Windows (XP Pro, if it matters) I've run into a situation wherein any and all attempts to install anything on the system hang waiting on who knows what. When the system is restarted, all queued up attempts at installation then g...
I am using a regular Visual Studio Setup Project to deploy my ASP.NET application. I need to handle the case of an existing web.config existing in the target directory. When one is found, it needs to be renamed before the install takes place. If this does not happen, the new web.config will not overwrite the old. How can I get my custo...
What is the best way to determine if the flash ocx is installed in Innosetup (or any installer for that matter). I don't want to attempt to install it myself, I will simply force the user to go to the flash site and install, I just want to make sure that the flash.ocx (version 9+) is installed. Is it enough to check for HKEY_CLASSES_RO...
I have an easy one for the install ninjas. I'm using Visual Studio 2008 to write an installation and I'm a complete newbie when it comes to installations. I've created an installation and successfully written some custom actions using a C# assembly. One action sets a RunOnce registry value, and now I need to prompt the user to reboot whe...
As you might know, msiexec is a command line app that you can use to install an MSI file. As you might know, you can run it in silent or invisible mode. My question is this. If the installer requires the user to answer specific questions about what parts to install, is there some way that I can put in the msiexec command line a ser...
I'm need to choose a software package for installing software. NSIS and WiX seem promising. Which one would you recommend over the other and why? Feel free to offer something else if you think it's better than these two. ...
I am creating windows installer project using Visual Studio 2005. Is there an option make it so that my project does NOT have an uninstall option in Add/Remove programs? One of my customers has asked me to do this.. Here's Why: Because the installer is a patch to an existing program. After uninstalling, the program no longer works beca...
I used windows installer (msi project) and actually I have the msi file after installation it throws a shortcuts to the desktop. My problem is when i double-click on the shortcut for my application, it displays somthing like the installation then it runs my application. I don't want the installtion windows to appear where my application...
I'm currently looking for a way to keep setup projects outputs from overwriting previous versions. I.E When a setup project is built, it replaces anything in Release/Debug folder, is there any way to rename the output to something including the version number, or date, just so it doesn't overwrite the previous file there, or even create ...
I have a solution containing a web application, a windows service plus a few scripts. I'd like it to be possible to click an install file and then choose where to place the files, create a web site or a virtual directory in IIS and install the service. I also have a few script I have to run via an external EXE that will be part of the pa...
Following the advice of wcoenen, I've decided to try using registration-free COM. This works perfectly, excepting on pre-XP machines, of course. One idea which I thought would be kind of neat would be to add to some files, SelfRegCost='[var]'. It is quite likely that this is not The Right Thing™ but I still want to know how to do it, ...
I am developing a chained installer including the .msi installation of Crystal Reports Basic (10.5) using Inno Setup. I cannot find any deployment guidance to determine if this is already installed on the target PC, though it appears I can call the .msi multiple times and it always attempts to install (never goes to the typical repair/r...
I am upgrading an old Wise for Windows installation to a newer version of Wise Installation Studio, and the WiseCustomCall resource is now marked as <unspecified>. The .wsi compiles into a .msi without issue, but then fails during runtime, not being able to locate "location: WiseCustomCall, command: g0". Can anyone provide some informa...
Is there any reason not to set up the install so that major upgrade is always done and productcode changed? I find that supporting different kinds of installs needs more code, and "repair" install seems to work easier with major upgrade. Also the application that needs to be installed is not very big, thus there is no need for "service ...
My app has its own installer but I have to guide my users to install Firebird on their own. I'd like to install it automatically. Thanks. ...
Is it acceptable to install an application in the AppData folder? Both Google Talk & Chrome are not installed in the default Program Files folder. They get installed in user's AppData folder. Microsoft does the same thing with ClickOnce... I would like to my application to self-update, but when installed in Program Files folder, it fai...
I'm sure this is fairly easy, but I've kind of had a hard time with it. I've got a custom action that executes a different (non-msi) installer on installation. Unfortunately, I've noticed that it also executes the installer on UNinstallation! I've looked through the options but I cant' seem to find out how to stop this. If anybody could...