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When using InstallShield to create a compressed setup file, i noticed that InstallShield discovers referenced assemblies from files i added to Files and Folders and adds them to the setup.exe. While I am aware of those file I added I don't want to have those files in the setup too for file size issues.

Those said I can't find any property i could disable this.

Any ideas? Thank you!

George Taskos
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InstallShield defaults new components to Properties and Dependencies. You should set this to Properties Only. Also you should go into Tools | Options | .NET and change the default.

As an aside, I think this pattern is soo horrible that I actually have a build automation step that looks through the build log for assemblies captured this way and force a build break. It's not a very deterministic process and the scanner will frequently add stupid references like System.Windows.Forms.dll to the installer.

Christopher Painter
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  • I'm pretty sure the filters.xml file can be edited to prevent any specific assemblies from being added, but your point still stands. – Michael Urman Nov 15 '10 at 15:17
  • True but that creates a CM nightmare on the build machine. Making sure you have the correct filters.xml is one more thing you have to automate or risk a build problem. Also I make extensive use of Merge Modules and this type of dependency scanning creates component rule violations. Dependency scanning should never be used in Merge Module project types IMO. – Christopher Painter Nov 15 '10 at 15:33
  • 12 years later... in a .NET Core world it's crazy hard to know what's what making this even more impossible. 12 years ago I'd be upset if the installer added a BCL library. Now in .NET 6 that might actually be the right thing to do. – Christopher Painter Nov 03 '22 at 17:16