Visual Studio Setup Project Custom Dialog

Question

I have created a custom dialog for Visual Studio Setup Project using the steps described here: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/install/vsSetupCustomDialogs.aspx?fid=419622&df=90&mpp=25&noise=3&sort=Position&view=Quick&select=2640482&fr=26

Now I have a combobox in one of my dialogs. I want to populate the combobox with a list of all SQL Server instances running on the local network. It's trivial to get the server list ... but I'm completely lost on how to make them display in the combobox. I would appreciate your help and some code might also be nice as I'm beginner :).

Answer 1

I've always found the custom dialogs in visual studio setup projects to be woefully limited and barely functional.

By contrast, I normally create custom actions that display winforms gui's for any remotely difficult tasks during setup. Works really well and you can do just about anything you want by creating a custom action and passing a few parameters across.

In the dayjob we built a collection of common custom actions for tasks like application config and database creation / script execution to get around custom dialog limitations.

Answer 2

Custom actions are the only way to do almost anything besides the very basic, but I would like to have a dialog appear before the confirm installation step and I want it to have the same look&feel like the rest of the installer. That is why I'm looking for something similar to what is described in the codeproject article.

Answer 3

I guess you'll have to go beyond the out-of-the-box setup and deployment package and try a third party app.

You may want to look at:

• Wix
• Nullsoft Scriptable Install System

Both are free; they might give you the customization that you need.

Answer 4

I am aware of alternatives. However, I'm really looking for help on how to achieve my goals using the Visual Studio setup project.