I'm trying to "teach" InstallShield LE for Visual Studio 2010 to build a myproject.msi instead of setup.exe
In (6) prepare for Release I've changed in the Setup.exe Tab the value Setup Launcher to "No".
When I build the Project it generates still a setup.exe. Im using SingleImage and I've also switched from Debug to SingleImage.
Any Idea what I'm doing wrong?
The issue is that there are multiple release types within the Installshield Project "Prepare for release", you have to make sure you have the the "Setup Launcher" property to "No" on the Setup.exe tab for each Release type (CD_ROM, DVD-5, SingleImage) that you don't want a Setup.exe for.
You also need to confirm that you are building in the Release format that you think you are, check the Solution's Configuration Manager to verify which of the InstallShield LE project formats is being built for each of the release types.
Other things that used to cause this issue is if you are using any of the Installshield redistributable packages. They require the Setup.exe to manage these packages and installation processes for them.
Related
I've been given a Visual Studio solution someone else made. It has an installer project using Installshield LE. The installer builds fine but it makes an exe and I'm supposed to make an msi. I know the guy who wrote the project would generate msi files but I just don't see any options to do it. Is this doable with LE?
Go to step 6 and drill down to the Single Image release type. Set Compression on the build tab to yes and set setup launcher on the setup.exe tab to no. Build this release.
Thanks for the help, guys. These tips sorted my issue.
After so many 1990s-looking releases, its amazing that InstallShield finally went to the trouble to make their Visual Studio integration so friendly... yet hid this vital option away.
I'm adding a screenshot, to help other users.
I've solved it by using the following
By using SingleImage as the build type
Under - Setup.exe tab (Build | Setup.exe | Signing)
Select Setup Launcher = No.
The build from InstallShield will come out as a .MSI file under
(\RELEASE_PROJECT\Express\SingleImage\DiskImages\DISK1)
According to the question Bundling only part of the prerequisites with ClickOnce a ClickOnce installer can either download ALL prerequisites from the web or expects ALL of the files locally. This seems to be the same for a Visual Studio 2008 deployment project.
As I would also prefer to include only selected prerequisites in an installer archive I was wondering if this is really still state of the art. Will upgrading to Visual Studio 2010 solve this issue or is there any workaround that I overlooked?
So here's an idea that I came up with.
Package the bootstrap installer with all prerequisites except the
.NET framework with "Download prerequisites from the component
vendor's web site" set
Create a small program (batch file or
executable) that is launched instead of the bootstrap installer which
does the following
Check if .NET framework is installed (the bootstrap package files tell you how to check this, e.g. .NET framework is installed if
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v3.5\1033\Install ==
1)
If yes execute setup.exe -homesite=false which configures the installer not to download any files
Execute setup.exe
Comments welcome!
You can package the prerequisite and set a download URL and put the prerequisite there. Then when the prerequisite is installed by the bootstrapper, it will download it from the URL instead of having to include it in the deployment package. This means, of course, that you have to set up your own bootstrapper package every time you want to do this, but it does work.
On Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 I would like to create a installer for a solution I created.
I created it by menu way (File > New project... > Other Project Types > Setup and Deployment > Visual Studio Installer > Setup Project), added files to their correct destinations etc., and all works fine, except for prerequisites...
The problem is that my solution depends on .Net 3.5 and I would like to install it automatically together with the installer, in some offline way - no internet downloads on installation time.
If on installer project properties I mark "create setup to install install prerequisite components" and mark "download prerequisites from the same location as my application"...
... when I try to run, it shows messages like that:
Error 7 The install location for prerequisites has not been set to 'component vendor's web site' and the file 'DotNetFX35SP1\dotNetFX20\aspnet.msp' in item '.NET Framework 3.5 SP1' can not be located on disk. See Help for more information. D:\Projetos\Eletronica\M013-Moura\HG-V6-release1\VidaCiclada-semTemperatura\VidaCiclada_Installer\VidaCiclada_Installer.vdproj VidaCiclada_Installer
Well, I put my offline installer of .Net 3.5 on the same folder EXE output of my solution is. What am I doing wrong?
Although I could not completely finished my installer package, I found the issue:
I clicked on properties panel
I clicked on the setup project
On property named "Localization", I changed the value to "English (United States)"
So I could build the project and execute the installer normally (except for SQL Server Express, that I would like to install with that package too, but although it is executed with setup, it does not create the Windows services for it...).
I.e., the issue was that my VS2010 doesn't have the files needed for the setup on my native language, "Portuguese (Brazil)", but it has for English language. The final setup will install prerequisites on English language...
i want to make a uninstall option in my C# program?
can u help for this?
and provide some code also
If you deploy your application via a Visual Studio Setup and Deployment Project, an uninstaller will come standard with the installation. It will be available in the Add/Remove Programs of the control panel.
You can create an installation project which will automatically add support for uninstallation. Under Other Project Types you have Setup and Deployment. There is InstallShield LE and Visual Studio Installer. If you choose Setup Project under Visual Studio Installer project, you will have uninstall as part of the built project.
see this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-xFLltALg0
If you want the executable to remove itself. aka self-destruct. Check out this blog http://blog.pedroliska.com/2010/05/20/c-self-destruct-windows-app/
I've created setups for all my Delphi tools with Inno Setup for years. Now some users rather want an MSI installation package, so they can deploy the setups from a central server to all workstations.
How do I create one? Do I have to buy Visual Studio or some other product?
You can use Wix (which is free) to create an MSI installation package.
WiX Tutorial - Creating an Installer MSI with Wix
If you don't understand Windows Installer then I highly recommend The Definitive Guide to Windows Installer. You can't really use WiX without understanding MSI. Also worth downloading is the Windows Installer 4.5 SDK.
If you don't want to learn the Windows Installer fundamentals, then you'll need some wizard type package to hide all the nitty gritty details and hold your hand. There are plenty of options, some more expensive than others.
InstallShield
Advanced Installer
MSI Factory
etc..
However still I'd suggest picking up the above book and taking some time to understand what's going on "under the hood", it'll really help you figure out what's going wrong when customers start complaining that something is broken with the setup :)
You can use Visual Studio - that's paid.
You can use https://www.advancedinstaller.com/ - that has a free edition.
You can use http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page - for example Winamp uses this installer - and is very configurable and is Open Source.
Google "Freeware MSI installer".
e.g. https://www.advancedinstaller.com/
Several options here:
http://rbytes.net/software/development_c/install-and-setup_s/
Though being Windows, most are "shareware" rather than truly free and open source.
In Visual Studio (including the free community editions) you can install the Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Projects extension [1] which allows you to create an MSI installation package. To install it from within Visual Studio:
Go to Extensions -> Manage Extensions in the menu bar
Search for Installer Projects in the search box
Select Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Projects and hit Download
Restart Visual Studio
Once the extension is installed, you'll create a new project that will contain all of the files and settings for the MSI. To do this:
Go to File -> New -> Project in the menu bar
Change the drop down menus visible to show All languages, All platforms, and All project types respectively
Scroll down in the project type list and towards the bottom select Setup Wizard: Create a Windows Installer project with the aid of a wizard.
Hit Next.
Work through the prompts to choose the installer project name and location. Choose Create a setup for a Windows application at Step 2 and in Step 3 choose the executable and other files that should be included in the MSI (hit Add..). At the end, hit Create.
To build the actual MSI go to Build -> Build Solution in the top menu, and you should see a message like the following in the Output window:
Build started...
------ Starting pre-build validation for project 'Setup1' ------
------ Pre-build validation for project 'Setup1' completed ------
------ Build started: Project: Setup1, Configuration: Debug ------
Building file 'C:\Users\zelda\Source\Repos\Setup1\Setup1\Debug\Setup1.msi'...
Packaging file 'test.exe'...
========== Build: 1 succeeded or up-to-date, 0 failed, 0 skipped ==========
What's created by default is a very basic MSI, but for additional configuration like creating custom actions, adding/changing registry keys, configuring the user interface associated with the MSI, etc., see the full documentation [2]
[1] https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioClient.MicrosoftVisualStudio2017InstallerProjects
[2] https://aka.ms/vdproj-docs
You can use "Visual studio installer project" and its free...
This is very easy to create installer and has GUI.(Most of the freeware MSI creation tool does not have a GUI part)
You will find many tutorials to create an installer easily on the internet
To install. just search Visual Studio Installer Project in your Visual Studio
Visual Studio-> Tools-> Extensions&updates ->search Visual Studio Installer Project. Download it and enjoy...
Look for Windows Installer XML (WiX)
You can purchase InstallShield, the market leader for creating installation packages. It offers many features beyond what you get with freeware solutions.
Warning: InstallShield is insanely expensive!
In my opinion you should use Wix#, which nicely hides most of the complexity of building an MSI installation pacakge.
It allows you to perform all possible kinds of customization using a more easier language compared to WiX.