Is there a way to suppress duplicate merge module adding for an InstallShield 2012 project?

Question

I have a visual studio solution with > 100 projects, the majority of them are different device "interface"/adapter dll's but there are also a few common dll's and applications. All are c# projects.

All of the device adapter dll's rely on a common dll that apparently needs the MDAC 2.7.

I have an installshield 2012 standard MSI project that is responsible for packaging the applications and the device adapter dlls.

When I build the installation package, I get a message like this for each project that references this common dll.

Adding merge module 'Microsoft Data Access Components 2.7 (English)' that is a dependency of component 'projectname.Primary_output'

Since almost everything uses this common dll, this seems kind of redundant (it performs this action more than a hundred times) It also adds 15-30 seconds for each occurence to the build time.

Is there any way to stop InstallShield from trying to add this merge module with every project output? Or is there any other solution that may still work, and that reduces build time?

Why you don't want disable this merge module, if you don't need it in every installer? — Igor Shenderchuk, Nov 09 '12 at 09:36
Not sure I understand what you are saying. The problem is I do not want and do not need to add this merge module, but cannot seem to find a way to stop installshield from trying to add it (and it adds it for every project). — StingyJack, Nov 09 '12 at 19:25
And you can't disable it on Redistributables page? Just uncheck? — Igor Shenderchuk, Nov 10 '12 at 00:24
Its not even selected. This is the built in dependency scanner causing this. I have set the .NET Scan at build property to "Properties only" FOR EVERY FREAKING COMPONENT IN THIS PROJECT (several hundred) to stop this scanning. After several discussions with product support, Installshield engineering considers this a FEATURE. — StingyJack, Nov 12 '12 at 15:18

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 28 '13 at 08:09

2

Select the component for which you do not want to include the dependency from Organization->Component. Go to right side properties part.
Under .Net Settings there is third property: .Net scan at build. Select value None or Properties only from the drop down.

This should help.

edited Feb 28 '13 at 08:09

Shimon Rachlenko

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answered Feb 28 '13 at 07:47

SamirBhatt

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Thanks. This was what I did, but forgot to report. – StingyJack Feb 28 '13 at 14:44
"None" was the only thing that worked for me. "Properties Only" still brought in merge module as a dependency. InstallShield IDE v2019 and v2020 – JohnZaj Oct 04 '20 at 15:17

Is there a way to suppress duplicate merge module adding for an InstallShield 2012 project?

1 Answers1