I've noticed projects such as Msbuild Extension Pack and MsBuild Community Tasks give msbuild the power to install assemblies, sql, and setup IIS. These features seem to be oriented to doing installs and not builds. So I was wondering how many people out there are using msbuild, perhaps in conjunction with Cruise Control.Net to do in...
I'm having no end of trouble calling MsiEnumRelatedProducts from C#. I've tried a couple of variations on the p/invoke definition but no luck (out and ref). I think the problem is the last parameter, which is an LPTSTR that is supposed to point to a string 39 characters long. Here's the pinvoke and call: public static string EnumRelat...
I'm working on a small console application in Visual Studio C++ 2008 and would like to make an installer that I can distribute to a few friends to test the application. I recall a publish option being under the build menu, but it is not there now. Could I somehow have turned this feature off? Is there a simple way to publish such that...
Hi all, What's the best way to create a set of windows like in installers where you can click next/back and move between screens. My idea is to define a class which holdes all the necessary 'current window' information, such as buttons, dialogue boxes and all that. And basically have the next/previous increment between displaying these...
I need suggestions about a setup CD layout for non technical users. My software is deployed on a CD with a setup.exe bootstrapper and a MSI file. There are also several dependency files used by the installer. The CD root looks something like this: myapp.msi setup.exe sqlexpr32.exe dotnetfx.exe myapp.ico ... It is not rocket science f...
I have been evaluating the wide range of installation and web deployment solutions available for Windows applications. I will just clarify here (without too much detail, these tools have been covered in other questions) my understanding of the options: NSIS - Free tool that generates setup executables. Small binary. Specialized, som...
Hi, I have a standard Visual Studio (2008) application setup project, which generates an msi containing a few files. I noticed however that: 1) When the msi installs and some of the files already exist, it simply silently ignores these files. This is the behaviour that I don't want, because of obvious reasons. 2) When I uninstall the ms...
We use wix to create setups for our application. For the case where the user has already installed an older version of our application, we do a major upgrade by making use of Upgrade elements and RemoveExistingProducts as described here. This is all working as desired: if an older version is installed, it is upgraded transparently. If a ...
I am creating an installation package for a VB6 application using Visual Studio Installer from the Visual Studio Installer Enterprise Tools v6.0. My issue is that Installer is adding a strange item under depdendencies, named simply "3". The "Sourcefile" and "Target" properties for this item are also shown as just "3". The "ComponentId" p...
I have a method that creates a virtual directory. How can I set the .Net framework to version 2 while I create the virtual dir? My method looks like this so far: private static void CreateVDir(string metabasePath, string vDirName, string physicalPath) { // metabasePath is of the form "IIS://<servername>/<service>/<siteID>...
How can I configure my virtual directory to have Windows Integrated Security checked and Anonymous checked through installer. How can I assign my newly created Virtual directory to an specied appPool which is already created on IIS6.0? Any code snippets and how to perform these action thru maybe a Custom Actions Editor/ any web sites ...
I'm using a Setup project in VS 2005, and I've learned all about the "joys" of advertised shortcuts. My project creates shortcuts to the program on the Desktop and Start Menu, and whenever those are run, the MSI re-installs the application (because installed files have changed). I've also created a file association for my application,...
Hello, stackoverflowers: I am considering helping an open-source gaming project with creating their setup file. The game is currently weights around 300 MB and is packaged in a zip file, playable straight after it's unarchived. The zip file contains separate executables for Windows, Mac, and Linux as well as compressed data files that a...
How do I detect if Sql Server Express is installed and running on a machine in a WiX installer? I want to check before installing my application and if it's not installed and running, to inform a user that it has to install it first before installing my application. ...
Are there any limitations that I might face when using VS Setup Projects? I plan to use them, but am not sure if this would be a good idea. ...
Is there an difference between this (nested Installer) ServiceInstaller si = new ServiceInstaller(); si.ServiceName = "MyService"; ServiceProcessInstaller spi = new ServiceProcessInstaller(); spi.Account = ServiceAccount.LocalSystem; spi.Installers.Add(si); this.Installers.Add(spi); and this? (TransactedInstaller) TransactedInstal...
Hi, I'm using the following post build actions in a project, to merge a lib into my application: IF $(ConfigurationName) == Debug GOTO end cp $(TargetPath) $(TargetDir)app_unmerged.exe del $(TargetPath) "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\ILMerge\ilmerge.exe" /internalize $(TargetDir)MyApp_unmerged.exe $(TargetDir)someLib.dll /out:$(TargetDir)...
I have made an application, which keeps getting updated frequently. So every time a change occurs, i've to include it's fresh builds to the setup and deployment program again and again. Is there any way to simplify the procedure? The files to be added are static in number and exist in a folder. I've heard we can write installer classes i...
Awhile ago there was a debate whether we should use a third party installer or write our own. We've had 2 generations of internally developed installers that just do services, msmq, com+, gac and sql script by shelling out to exe's. So I was wondering who out there is using a custom written installer for your companies specific needs? ...
I have just started using NSIS. It works very well but I find the documentation a bit unstructured. How do I require user to uninstall previous version before installing a new version with NSIS? NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) is an open source system to create Windows installers. ...