Pure Technology’s story of moving from Microsoft Setup Projects to Advanced Installer.

11:25 pm:

First instinct: Denial.

My first instinct was denial: "this can’t be right – there must be a workaround". So, I did what most of us do when faced with a problem we cannot easily solve … I turned to Google. A quick search of “Microsoft Installer Setup Project not supported” rendered multiple results from some of my favorite developer communities:

So I started clicking and clicking -- and after about 15 minutes I learned that:

1. VDPROJ is no longer supported in Visual Studio
2. Their “solution” is to just exclude the project (if I didn’t need the installer, I wouldn’t have built it so … yeah), and
3. There is this new platform called “WIX” that most people have moved onto which includes an “unsupported” extension that might work but it’s laden with bugs and warnings about compatibility with newer projects.

11:55 pm:

First hope.

I decided to take my chances. I downloaded the extension, installed it, and voilà! I reopened my solution, and the installer project opened just fine. It seemed everything was golden and I could get this release out the door to market... until I tried the installer. The first thing I noticed when building the installer was tons of build errors. After googling and solving those problems (which required me to manually edit the .csproj files), I finally got the “duck taped” solution to build. Only to find out that the installer wouldn’t run, or would only run on a very old version of Windows. Another 45 minutes lost…

12:40 am:

No, it didn’t work!

Ok, that didn’t work. Let’s see what this WIX thing is all about. More googling. Turns out there is another extension (the WIX Toolset) that looks pretty easy to install. I do a little reading, their website says it “Integrates Seamlessly” (which sounds like a good sign), scrolling, reading, scrolling. After another 15-20 minutes of reading, I learned that the WIX framework requires several lines of code around MSBUILD.exe, among others, and I signed my builds with a strong-key, plus there’s a bunch of configurations you have to set manually in XML … and argh, I was getting annoyed and realized it would take me all night just to get my first project done.

1:20 am:

Back to square one.

Back to square one. What else is out there? More Googling … “Installers for Visual Studio .net projects''. The first result was “Advanced Installer”, it looks easy, but it’s kind of expensive - I can find something else. I go back to Googling “Alternatives to Advanced Installer”, it yields some results: NSIS, WiX (there’s that one again), INNO SETUP (it's free, that’s a good sign, but it's from 1997, argh), IzPack, InstallForge (I’ve worked with that one, and know it's difficult and expensive … next). Ok not a ton of options, but let’s see what else is free.

1:50 am:

Trying Inno Setup

I decided to try Inno Setup. I went to their website, downloaded the product, it’s alright, but still a lot of command line stuff, and not many features -- not what I’m looking for.

2:00 am:

Trying NSIS

What’s next on the list? NSIS? Sure why not, it seems to have good reviews and there’s one of those little “thumbs up” icons – that means it should be good, right? It’s open-source, so the price is right.

Downloading, oh no, more coding. Why can't I just find a solution that is easy to use, works reliably, and doesn’t require me to learn another language to get a simple installer? Aargh, here's where I get frustrated.

2:15 am:

I really need a break!

I made a trip to the cookie jar and took a short break to let my mind reset.

This project required .Net Framework and SQL Express, as well as a specific OLEDB driver, so while some of the products might have worked if I were just copying files to an install folder and creating a shortcut or two (heck, PowerShell and batch files can do that) … I actually needed a little more.

3:00 am

Advanced Installer again.

Running out of time. Need to figure this out. I just want to go to bed. There must be another solution.

Googling again “create installer with prerequisites”:

Prerequisites Page – Advanced Installer, there it is again. And right below it “tutorial-professional” — click

“This view allows you to include existing installers …” scrolling… Pre-Install, Feature-Based … scrolling… wow this actually looks pretty easy. And look at the list on the left of other tutorials … “Product Information”, “Windows Features”, “Windows Server Roles”, Launch Conditions, Merge Modules. WOW! This product really seems to have a lot to offer—I’ll give it a shot.

3:30 am

My First Advanced Installer Experience … piece of cake!

I decide to download and try Advanced Installer. Downloading … Installing … (I usually look for a getting started or quick reference but this time I didn’t) … Installed.

When I first opened the application, I was presented with a dialog based on what kind of application I wanted to build/install. Ok, easy enough … I chose .Net Application and clicked “Create Project”.

The next few pages were very basic steps asking about the product name, my company, what kind of distribution media I wanted (MSI, EXE, CD/DVD, Web Installer, and even support for a Windows 10 MSIX/APPX package). Wow, they’ve thought of everything! And finally, where do I want to save my project file and setup files and where does my source project (bin folder) live.

Easy … Peasy. Once the “wizard” was completed, I was redirected to the main ‘Project’ on the ‘Product Details’ page where I could easily add additional details such as my software Version, Publisher, Support Link, Help Link, Telephone, Comment, icons, etc. You’ll also notice in the screenshot below that the system is smart enough to know where I want to put things like my APPDIR (where the application gets installed) and it figured out that I had a “log” file that would need to go in the [Common Application Data] folder. Again, pretty sweet!

3:45 am:

15 minutes later.

Everything looks good and it’s taken me less than 15 minutes. I did a little clicking around. Under the “Files and Folders”, I discovered that all the files my application would need, including the Microsoft DLLs and others I had linked to my project were already included. It was easy to then add and rearrange specific items such as documentation, links, settings files (which would go in the Common Application Data folder) and shortcuts for both Desktop and Start Menu.

If I had needed them, I could also have easily added Registry Keys, File Associations, and Windows Services with a few clicks … and I haven’t even read the first “tutorial” or “documentation” on their website!

3:50 am:

Now, what about those prerequisites I need?

Remember, I had found what looked like some really good documentation when I was still searching for an installer solution but it turns out I don’t need it. If you scroll down just below “Package Definition” there is a section called “Requirements”. If you click on that, you get a simple checklist of common packages which your solution might require. You also have the option to do things like “Reboot after installing this prerequisite”, “Continue even if the prerequisite is not installed”, and it also has the option to either include the required files or have the installer download them from a public site (i.e. microsoft.com) at install time to keep your packages small.

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I didn’t need them, but Advanced Installer offers the ability to require and/or turn-on embedded Windows features and server roles (such as IIS), should your software require these. And, the screenshots don’t do it justice, because the full list of “Predefined Prerequisites” range from about 40 versions of .NET Framework and Runtimes, everything SQL related from Report Viewer to express and full versions SQL SERVER, and other third party products such as Adobe Flash, Acrobat, Java, Silverlight (I know, who uses that anymore?), Internet Explorer, DirectX, multiple versions of Office, and even advanced administration tools such as PowerShell and Remote Server Admin.

Oh and another “cool” feature about Advanced Installer, under “Package Definition”, you can easily configure Install Parameters and Features (under Organization). That way, you can allow your users to install only part of your project (i.e. if they only need the client utility vs. the full server package) and you can easily tell Advanced Installer which DLLs and other files are included in each package and where they should get installed.

3:55 am:

I have my installer in less than 30 minutes.

It’s been less than 30 minutes and I now have my installer, complete with the needed prerequisites,all ready to go. I click the “BUILD” button and bam -- installer done! A couple of quick tests on our lab machines to make sure everything installs correctly and we're done.

4:05 am:

Uploading the installer for my customers.

I uploaded our new installer to the website where it will be distributed to our customer base tomorrow.

Time for bed and I can still get a little sleep before I start my day with meetings and phone calls at 8 am!