Creating Visual Studio Style Installer

Question

I am trying to figure out how to create an installer that looks and behaves like the VS2008 installer. Does anyone know what MS used and whether there is something like it out there for public consumption?

Answer 1

You might want to take a look at Client Profile Configuration Designer from Microsoft. It lets you create a large, chained installation consisting of several MSI:s. There is a demonstration video here

Answer 2

Just put in the installer pictures of beautiful girls not like those on VS2008 installer who look like tired of life.

Answer 3

All right, I must have been smokin' the crack, because now I can't find the reference, but I thought I read somewhere that the VS team was moving to Wix. I know that it's shipping with VS 2010, and it's supposed to play nice with VS 2k8.

Answer 4

Have you looked into the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System? It's a favorite for making installers.

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/

Answer 5

Similar to Adrien, I've read somewhere (one of the VS Installer Developers) that the front end is actually a normal application, that then runs multiple msi installers (wix built) for the components/prerequisites.

There are some Code Project examples showing how to build .net front-end installers.

Answer 6

Try InstallAware. While their pricing is pretty prohibitive, it can easily do what you are looking for. I personally don't use it because it doesn't support custom branding... You see "InstallAware" all over the place. But overall, a great setup authoring application.