How to create my own Msi file

[mariano_donati]

Hi. I need a custom setup for my application, one that VS, or third parties (at least those wich I've seen) don't match.
So, my question is how hard is to create a Msi file. I tried to find some reference about this extension, but I didn't find any of it. Does MS keep it in secret?.

[si_the_geek]

Thread moved to Application Deployment forum, which is for questions about installing/distributing your software

There are several threads in this forum which include info about creating/modifying MSI files, so a search on whatever it is you are trying to achieve should get good results.

Posts by dilettante tend to be good for this kind of thing, and often include links to relevant documentation.

[dilettante]

MSI packages are actually databases. They even use a form of SQL! Who'd have thunk it hmm?

They are created via Windows Installer COM objects or via API calls. Most people use a program on top of this that provides some sort of user interface of course.

Visual Studio provides Project types for creating MSI packages. For Visual Studio 6.0 this was a separate downloadable add-on, in later versions it was integrated though it isn't part of Express SKUs. There are 3rd party tools from several vendors. There is the open source WiX tool as well.

You can find lots of info at InstallSite: Software and Support for Setup Developers.

[mariano_donati]

Thanks for your replies. I've searched a lot in this forum and on the web. I think that modifying msi file generated from Visual Studio with Orca is a good option for me by now.

I've found a way to change ProgressBar style, to show wich action is the installer performed and there are a couple of things that I don't know how to do it now, but I think that I'll realize it soon. Maybe you can help me on this too.

The thing is that I have a class in my project wich inherits from Installer. I override Install and Uninstall method to perform actions that are required for my application to work well. I want to know wich action from InstallExecuteSequence table is taking place when overrided Install method is called so I can set a display label to show the user what is really happening. With that done, there'll be just one or two things to get my installer customized just as I wanted.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Cheers.

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AFTER EDIT:

That's a great reference dilettante. thanks.

[dilettante]

Alas, I won't be much help. I don't do any MSI work with versions of Visual Studio after VS 6.0 so I can't be of any direct assistance on this.

Perhaps somebody else will offer some suggestions.

[mariano_donati]

VS adds an entry to CustomAction table, something like _5C870CC6_184F_4C76_9114_A3E78544C87F.install for each custom action the last part is relative to it. So, this is the action executed.
May be it was helpful for anyone.
Regards.