InstallShield 2013 merge modules - what are they and how do they work?

Question

We have a product that's been build using InstallShield 2013 that a client is trying to install on a machine without internet connectivity and it's being tripped up trying to download a Microsoft C++ module.

When I open InstallShield and look at the MSI project and click on the Application Data->Redistributables and search for 2005 I see the picture below which shows that that package is selected for install and it's location is Installed Locally, so shouldn't it be included in our MSI? If I right-click on the package in InstallShield and choose Browse for Merge Module however the resulting folder is empty (of merge modules anyway - there are .dlls there).

So my question is how would I create a merge module to begin with (given a .dll) and then how do I get it installed into my MSI so that the client doesn't have to download it?

Answer 1

Installed Locally means that your development machine has the bits and thus can include it in your built package.

But for it to actually do so, a prerequisite must be configured to do so in one of two ways. Configure it either by right clicking on the item in the Redistributables view to edit its Properties and change its Build Location, or by changing the location of all redistributables in the Releases view > Setup.exe tab > InstallShield Prerequisites Location.