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Questions tagged [windows-installer]

Windows Installer is the installation service provided with Windows, based on the creation and installation of MSI files. In practice there will be a tool you're using to generate the MSI files, and you should tag your question with Windows Installer and that tool (WiX, Visual Studio Setup Project, InstallShield, Advanced Installer etc). Your issue may be with building, designing, or installing MSI files.

From the MSDN documentation:

Microsoft Windows Installer is an installation and configuration service provided with Windows. The installer service enables customers to provide better corporate deployment and provides a standard format for component management. The installer also enables the advertisement of applications and features according to the operating system.

Installer also handles registry related changes.

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What installation product to use? InstallShield, WiX, Wise, Advanced Installer, etc

I'm currently doing some investigation on moving off of the installation package we currently use (Wise Installer 9) and moving to something that will handle things like Windows Vista, Windows 7 and 64-bit systems. Localization of the installers…
Mat Nadrofsky
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Good resources for learning how to create MSI installers from WiX

I've given up trying to apply lipstick to the pigs of installers that come out of Visual Studio and have decided to look at WiX. What resources would you recommend to learn and reference? (Note - this is not a which-installer-technology-do-you-use…
Ryan
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Wix create non advertised shortcut for all users / per machine

In WIX, how do you create a non advertised shortcut in the allusers profile? So far I've only been able to accomplish this with advertised shortcuts. I prefer non-advertised shortcuts because you can go to the shortcut's properties and use "find…
mcdon
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How to pass the smart screen on Win8 when install a signed application?

We are developer, and we have a digital signed application installer. When we install this application, it popups out the smart screen which affects the installing experience. It says Windows protected your PC Windows SmartScreen prevented an…
Howard
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How can I create an MSI setup?

I've created setups for all my Delphi tools with Inno Setup for years. Now some users rather want an MSI installation package, so they can deploy the setups from a central server to all workstations. How do I create one? Do I have to buy Visual…
Daniel Rikowski
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How to execute custom action only in install (not uninstall)

I'm sure this is fairly easy, but I've kind of had a hard time with it. I've got a custom action that executes a different (non-msi) installer on installation. Unfortunately, I've noticed that it also executes the installer on UNinstallation! I've…
Cyprus106
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Free software for Windows installers: NSIS vs. WiX?

I'm need to choose a software package for installing software. NSIS and WiX seem promising. Which one would you recommend over the other and why? Feel free to offer something else if you think it's better than these two.
John Smith
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How does one auto update a windows application the way Google Chrome does?

Google Chrome auto updates itself every five hours. I want to clone this exact functionality in my own application. What is a way to implement this functionality on Windows?
John Shedletsky
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Uninstalling an MSI file from the command line without using msiexec

msiexec is command prompt software that installs an MSI program. But I have found that you can install an MSI file from the command line by just typing in the name of the MSI file on the command line. But in order to uninstall the MSI file, it seems…
xarzu
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One file per component or several files per component?

Should I wrap all the files I want to install in individual components? What is the advantage of putting several files in one component?
Nestor
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How to pass CustomActionData to a CustomAction using WiX?

How are properties set on CustomActionData to be retrieved by a deferred custom action?
Ayo I
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Create shortcut to desktop using WiX

How do I create a shortcut on the desktop from a wix setup project?
Raymond Holmboe
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In WiX files, what does Name="SourceDir" refer to?

WiX files always seem to include this line: What is "SourceDir"? What is it used for? It's not a real directory name. Is it some kind of magical value?
dan-gph
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Extract MSI from EXE

I want to extract the MSI of an EXE setup to publish over a network. For example, using Universal Extractor, but it doesn't work for Java Runtime Environment.
emdadgar2
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AppFabric installation failed because installer MSI returned with error code : 1603

When I reinstall the AppFabric 1.1, Why I'm getting this error "AppFabric installation failed because installer MSI returned with error code : 1603".? I did run it with administrative rights. Below is the error log. 2012-06-26 18:20:07,…
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