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I have begun the hard work of converting an old Web Setup project to InstallShield LE.

So I have been searching around on how to do this. And my GOD how messy it is.

I did follow one of those guides. It seems I have to install some dummy data to Program Files just to be able to install the web application...? I have found no way to remove/delete the Program Files part of the setup. The setup dialogs shows the target folder as C:\Program Files\whatever.

Is it possible to install the web application ONLY to the correct IIS folder?

I want a clean install. No junk leftovers just because InstallShield is way to limited.


It annoys me to no end that there is no simple installer tool anymore. I even tried to hack the VS2010 setup project package (c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\Tools\Deployment) to work with VS2013. It almost loaded, but got a "80070057 - E_INVALIDARG" error on loading it.

If someone brave enough and know how custom project types work could take a go on it, maybe we can get a working (but old) setup project to work again.

Wolf5
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  • I am just now trying to create a web setup project in VS 2013 and am running into this same issue. I think whoever at MS made the decision to remove the setup projects from VS needs to have their heads examined. I think this must rank as one of the most monumentally bad decisions of all time (along with Windows 8). So let me get this straight: I can create a web project with VS 2013 but I cannot deploy it? WTF man? – Obi Wan Feb 28 '14 at 16:20
  • I am currently heading the WIX way. Take a look at that. A guy created a "hello world" web installer project for WIX that I used as the base. That together with an auto-harvesting of which files to pack (from the ms deploy folder) it is all automagic. – Wolf5 Mar 03 '14 at 09:34
  • I have now created a generic Web Setup Wix template which will build any web project (webapps). Will post it sooner or later when it has been run through many practical upgrades from older web setup projects. made a vsix of it. should be a base for any web setups. http://halsvik.net/downloads/WebSetup2013Installer.vsix (req: Wix toolset 3.8) – Wolf5 Apr 08 '14 at 19:26
  • I have successfully created a web setup project using pure Install Shield LE, so it can be done. The one thing it does is to create an empty unused folder in program files that I cannot seem to make it not do, but otherwise I have found out how to make it do everything .Net used to do. Not as easy to configure certainly but functional. – Obi Wan Apr 09 '14 at 13:18
  • The WIX way I have now is very easy. Add web setup project. Add ref to the web project. Change names and targt website folder. Compile. Done. So I will stick to that :). – Wolf5 Apr 09 '14 at 13:42
  • @Wolf5 the download link to your vsix yields a 404. Could you please repost it? – David Wilson Aug 07 '14 at 21:00
  • try .zip instead of .vsix on the URL. – Wolf5 Aug 15 '14 at 14:21

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The lack of answers and my fruitless search yields one answer. InstallShield LE is not capable of this.

You are better off using WiX for this. Seeing how other have done this and modifying it is the quickest way to get something up and running.

This is the result of such work: http://halsvik.net/downloads/WebSetup2013Installer.zip

And it seems MS has decided to add support for the old Microsoft Setup projects (VDPROJ) again: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2014/04/17/visual-studio-installer-projects-extension.aspx https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/9abe329c-9bba-44a1-be59-0fbf6151054d

Wolf5
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