Windows msi creation

This is wrong, it leads to duplicate ProductCode and UpgradeCode. The article on Product Identification explains why this is wrong in the "Copying your project files" section. In Application Folder , you can add the files and folders used by your application, this folder representing the installation folder.

You can read more about these folders in the Install Parameters page. Click on the [ Add Files Once the build is complete, click on the [ Run ] toolbar button. By default, the story. Browse to that folder in Windows Explorer to check. Simply press the [ Run ] button again without modifying anything and the Setup wizard will appear. Select [ Remove ] in the second screen and wait until the uninstall process is complete.

If you change anything in the project, pressing [ Run ] will cause a different package to be generated. Let's change them. Build and Run the package again to check the results. Don't forget to uninstall afterward. Installing in Programs Files x86 is not of much use if we don't create shortcuts to the installed file. Select the story. Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support. Feedback will be sent to Microsoft: By pressing the submit button, your feedback will be used to improve Microsoft products and services.

Privacy policy. Skip to main content. These tools provides you with ability to create MSI from scratch on the low level by manipulating MSI entries, so in order to use them you at least need to know and understand fundamentals of MSI format. If none of above works for you because of the process complexity, you can try to use an automatic approach to create MSI packages. This approach is based on monitoring of system activity and capturing changes to create MSI.

In this case you have to make changes to be tracked and you will get MSI package that performs these changes. You only need to start monitoring, perform changes and then stop monitoring to get MSI package ready for deployment. Work through the prompts to choose the installer project name and location.

Choose Create a setup for a Windows application at Step 2 and in Step 3 choose the executable and other files that should be included in the MSI hit Add.. At the end, hit Create. You can purchase InstallShield , the market leader for creating installation packages. It offers many features beyond what you get with freeware solutions. In my opinion you should use Wix , which nicely hides most of the complexity of building an MSI installation pacakge.

It allows you to perform all possible kinds of customization using a more easier language compared to WiX. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Collectives on Stack Overflow.

Learn more. How can I create an MSI setup? Ask Question. Asked 12 years, 6 months ago. Active 7 months ago. Viewed k times. How do I create one? Do I have to buy Visual Studio or some other product? Daniel Rikowski Daniel Rikowski 68k 56 56 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes.