MSI Packager

I've written an app in VB6 and set it up with the manifest to make it a 'portable app' (Thnx to dilettante)
So no files should need to be registered.

What do I need to make an MSI setup file for the app?
(hopefully, there's a free app for it :))

Portable applications don't usually need an installer package of the usual types. One of the main things about their portability is that they don't alter the state of host machines, which is the primary function of any installer. This means the host machines don't get shortcuts, registry entries, component files added to System32, program files in program Files, and so on.

However you usually do want some kind of "packaging" if only in a form that allows you to "install" one into either a simple USB drive device or one that is using something like U3 infrastructure. For the latter you might look into U3 Technical Resources. For simple cases you might use something like Zip 2 Secure EXE and just skip the encryption and password feature.


If you don't really want portability but just an MSI package that installs (even on Vista) without requiring admin rights you can create a "per user install" MSI package.

By creating a reg-free COM package you have accomplished 75% of the task already. You can perform another 20% by using Microsoft Visual Studio Installer 1.1, but the remaining 5% or so requires manual use of the Orca.exe tool (or a VBScript to handle it more automatically). Those "percents" are just numbers picked out of the air but give some idea of the relative effort required in each step.

Alternatively you might look into a commercial packager like InstallSheild which can probably do very close to 100% of the job. They have added a Reg-Free COM Wizard in a recent release, those cheeky monkeys. I'm not sure the Express edition does everything required but even that runs $599 USD.

You might also look at:

PDC 2008: MSI 5 in Windows 7, Per-user Installation

ALLUSERS Property

Authoring Packages without the UAC Dialog Box *

Word Count Summary Property *


* New for Vista, hard to find gems.

thnx dilettante,

I understand they don't need an installer for a portable app.
It would mainly be for adding polish.
Show a eula, let them choose a file path, and an option to create shortcuts if they're placing the app on their HD instead of a flash drive.

I've always use inno setup, but I'm not sure if you can keep it from changing the users registry or from trying to update their system32 files.

Well then...

Maybe you could just make a small VB6 program to do this. Then wrap it all up in a self-extracting archive that runs the "installer" after unzipping to a temp folder?