This is probably a stupid question and my Googling just is not functioning today.

I have an application I added a Visual Studio Installer &gt; Setup Wizard project to. I am wondering how to add a button or check box that would launch the application after successful install. This would be located on the last page of the MSI Installer Package. I am using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.

I am needing this so that when the application does an automatic update, it auto launches the installer. I just need the installer to relaunch the app after the update.

This is probably very simple but for the life of me I cannot figure it out. Thanks in advance for you help.

Visual Studio Installer &gt; How To Launch App at End of Installer

Using Visual Studio 2008 to create an msi to deploy my program with a setup project. I need to know how to make the msi run the exe it just installed. A custom action? If so please explain where/how. Thanks.

Run exe after msi installation?

I often get a problem with Windows Installer trying to uninstall a package, but it complains that:

&gt; The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable.

Is there a known means of uninstalling such packages when the original MSI is simply not available?


Uninstall without an MSI file

I need to use InstallUtil to install a C# windows service. I need to set the service logon credentials (username and password). All of this needs to be done silently.

Is there are way to do something like this:

    installutil.exe myservice.exe /customarg1=username /customarg2=password



Using InstallUtil and silently setting a windows service logon username/password

I have a product setup executable that copies some files to the user&#39;s hard drive. It&#39;s not a typical installer in the normal sense (it doesn&#39;t add anything to the Start Menu or Program Files folders). 

Each time the setup program is run on Vista, after the exe terminates, Vista produces a task dialog:

   - **This program might not have installed correctly**
   - Reinstall using recommended settings
   - This program installed correctly

Is there a function I need to call from the exe or registry entry to set, to indicate to the operating system that the program installed correctly (or to at least supress this message)?

**Related questions:** [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1069135/this-program-might-not-have-installed-correctly-message-in-windows-7-rc](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1069135/this-program-might-not-have-installed-correctly-message-in-windows-7-rc) (for Windows 7-specific issues)

How to prevent &quot;This program might not have installed correctly&quot; messages on Vista

At work we use [WiX][1] for building installation packages. We want that installation of product X would result in uninstall of the previous version of that product on that machine.

I&#39;ve read on several places on the Internet about a major upgrade but couldn&#39;t get it to work.
Can anyone please specify the exact steps that I need to take to add uninstall previous version feature to WiX?

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiX


How to implement WiX installer upgrade?

I searched a lot, but all are guessed answers.  Help me to find the exact answer.

What are the specific differences between .msi and setup.exe file?

My Wix project creates install.msi and cab1.cab. How can I have it bundle everything into the msi? I will likely use 7-zip SFX to work around this but I have seen other apps with only a single msi.

Wix: single MSI instead of msi + cab

I would like to modify an MSI installer (created through [WiX][1]) to delete an entire directory on uninstall.

I understand the `RemoveFile` and `RemoveFolder` options in WiX, but these are not robust enough to recursively delete an entire folder that has content created after the installation.

I noticed the similar Stack Overflow question *[Removing files when uninstalling WiX][2]*, but I was wondering if this could be done more simply using a call to a batch script to delete the folder.

This is my first time using WiX, and I&#39;m still getting the hang of [custom actions][3]. What would be a basic example of a custom action that will run a batch script on uninstall?

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiX
  [2]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/195919
  [3]: http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix2/authoring_custom_actions.htm


How to add a WiX custom action that happens only on uninstall (via MSI)?

How do I create an installer for a Windows Service that I have created using Visual Studio?

How to create an installer for a .net Windows Service using Visual Studio

Is there a simple way to hook into the standard &#39;**Add or Remove Programs**&#39; functionality using PowerShell to **uninstall an existing application**? Or to check if the application is installed?

How can I uninstall an application using PowerShell?

What is the Wix &#39;**KeyPath**&#39; attribute? In particular, how does it apply to the following:

&lt;!-- language: xml --&gt;

    &lt;Component Id=&quot;ProgramMenuDir&quot; Guid=&quot;*&quot;&gt;
      &lt;RemoveFolder Id=&quot;ProgramMenuDir&quot; On=&quot;uninstall&quot; /&gt;
      &lt;RegistryValue Root=&quot;HKCU&quot; Key=&quot;Software\CompName\AppName&quot; 
                     Type=&quot;string&quot; Value=&quot;&quot; KeyPath=&quot;yes&quot; /&gt;
    &lt;/Component&gt;



What is the wix &#39;KeyPath&#39; attribute?

I create a small application and I would like to create one MSI file.

In [Visual Studio 2010][1] you have this project type under:

*Other Project Types* -&gt; *Setup and Deployment* -&gt; *Visual studio Installer* -&gt; *Setup Project*

But the only thing you got in [Visual Studio 2012][2] is &quot;Enable InstallShield Limited Edition&quot;.

You can change the .NET Framework, but nothing changes.

Why is it not there any more? And how can I get it back? Is there a new way to do this?

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio#Visual_Studio_2010
  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio#Visual_Studio_2012


Create MSI or setup project with Visual Studio 2012

I have been receiving this error for a while when using devenv on an automatic build. I have gone through every website I can find, and the usual answers mention refreshing dependencies (Which I believe fixes it for manual deployment, but not for automatic) and removing the source control coding from the projects, which hasn&#39;t helped me. 

The error does not occur every time I build, but it seems random on different deployment projects each time.

Does anyone have any advice on why exactly this error occurs and how to go about fixing it?

An error occurred while validating. HRESULT = &#39;8000000A&#39;

So we&#39;ve produced a windows service to feed data to our client application and everything is going great.  The client has come up with a fun configuration request that requires two instances of this service running on the same server and configured to point at separate databases.

So far I haven&#39;t been able to get this to happen and was hoping my fellow stackoverflow members might be able to give some hints as to why.

Current setup:

I&#39;ve set up the project that contains the windows service, we&#39;ll call it AppService from now on, and the ProjectInstaller.cs file that handles custom installation steps to set the service name based on a key in the App.config like so:

    this.serviceInstaller1.ServiceName = Util.ServiceName;
    this.serviceInstaller1.DisplayName = Util.ServiceName;
    this.serviceProcessInstaller1.Account = System.ServiceProcess.ServiceAccount.LocalSystem;

In this case Util is just a static class tha tloads the service name from the config file.

From here forward I have tried two different ways to get both services installed and both have failed in an identical way.

The first way was to simply install the first copy of the service, copy the installed directory and renamed it, and then ran the following command after modifying the app config to change the desired service name:

    InstallUtil.exe /i AppService.exe

When that didn&#39;t work I tried to create a second installer project, edited the config file and built the second installer.  When I ran the installer it worked fine but the service did not show up in services.msc so I ran the previous command against the second installed code base.

Both times i received the following output from InstallUtil (relevant parts only):

&gt; Running a transacted installation.
&gt; 
&gt; Beginning the Install phase of the installation.
&gt; 
&gt; Installing service App Service Two...
&gt; Service App Service Two has been successfully installed.
&gt; Creating EventLog source App Service Two in log Application...
&gt; 
&gt; An exception occurred during the Install phase.
&gt; System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
&gt; 
&gt; The Rollback phase of the installation is beginning.
&gt; 
&gt; Restoring event log to previous state for source App Service Two.
&gt; Service App Service Two is being removed from the system...
&gt; Service App Service Two was successfully removed from the system.
&gt; 
&gt; The Rollback phase completed successfully.
&gt; 
&gt; The transacted install has completed.
&gt; The installation failed, and the rollback has been performed.

Sorry for the long winded post, wanted to make sure there is enough relevant information.  The piece that so far has me stumped is that it states that the installation of the service completes successfully and its only after it goes to create the EventLog source that the NullReferenceException seems to get thrown.  So if anyone knows what I&#39;m doing wrong or has a better approach it would be much appreciated.

Installing multiple instances of the same windows service on a server

I have a MSI package that I need to install if the package is not already installed. Also I need to install it silently. The package prompts user for:

- Installation location (C:\Program Files\Foobar\)
- Install type: minimal and full (minimal)

I need to override these two parameters using command line parameters or some other method. So how do I go about these two issues. I&#39;ll use VBScript for scripting.

Silent installation of a MSI package

My company distributes an installer to customers via our website. Recently when I download via the website and try to run the installer I get the warning message:

&gt; Windows protected your PC 
&gt;
&gt; Windows Defender SmartScreen prevented an
&gt; unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at
&gt; risk.

If I right-click on the installer and choose *Properties* I note the following:

[![Enter image description here][1]][1]

Our installer is signed.

**How do I find the reason for the Windows Defender SmartScreen warning?**

I have not managed to find any log file for Windows Defender nor found anything in the Event Viewer.

  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/9rLVe.png


How to avoid the &quot;Windows Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting warning&quot;

I already have a project which is ready to build. Currently, I am using visual studio 2013.

But, I don&#39;t know how to create an MSI setup in visual studio 2013, but for visual studio 2010 there are plenty of tutorials out there discussing how to create a setup in visual studio 2010. 

* Does this mean I need to install visual studio 2010 in order to create an application setup for my project? 

* What is the easiest way to create an application setup in visual studio 2013? 

Create an application setup in visual studio 2013

When uninstalling my application, I&#39;d like to configure the [Wix][1] setup to remove all the files that were added **after the original installation**. It seems like the uninstaller removes only the directories and files that were originally installed from the MSI file and it leaves everything else that was added later in the application folder. In another words, I&#39;d like to purge the directory when uninstalling. How do I do that?

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiX


Removing files when uninstalling WiX

I&#39;ve given up trying to apply lipstick to the pigs of installers that come out of [Visual Studio][1] and have decided to look at [WiX][2].

What resources would you recommend to learn and reference?

*(Note - this is not a which-installer-technology-do-you-use question - it&#39;s specific to WiX.)*

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio
  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiX


Good resources for learning how to create MSI installers from WiX

I need to find the **product GUID** for an **installed MSI file** in order to perform maintenance such as **`patching`**, **`uninstall`** ([**how-to uninstall**][1]) and also for **`auditing purposes`**.

  [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/450027/uninstalling-an-msi-file-from-the-command-line-without-using-msiexec/1055933#1055933

How can I find the product GUID of an installed MSI setup?

In WIX, how do you create a non advertised shortcut in the allusers profile?  So far I&#39;ve only been able to accomplish this with advertised shortcuts.  I prefer non-advertised shortcuts because you can go to the shortcut&#39;s properties and use &quot;find target&quot;.

In the tutorials I&#39;ve seen use a registry value for the keypath of a shortcut.  The problem is they use HKCU as the root.  When HKCU is used, and another user uninstalls the program (since it&#39;s installed for all users) the registry key is left behind.  When I use HKMU as the root I get an ICE57 error, but the key is removed when another user uninstalls the program.  I seem to be pushed towards using HKCU though HKMU seems to behave correctly (per-user vs all-users).

When I try to create the non advertised shortcut I get various ICE error such as ICE38, ICE43, or ICE 57.  Most articles I&#39;ve seen recommend &quot;just ignore the ice errors&quot;.  There must be a way to create the non advertised shortcuts, without creating ICE errors.

Please post sample code for a working example.

Wix create non advertised shortcut for all users / per machine

I&#39;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 Studio or some other product?

How can I create an MSI setup?

I&#39;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&amp;nbsp;7 and 64-bit systems. Localization of the installers would be of benefit since we do have a number of French Canadian clients as well.

We currently have installations for software packages and utilities in the following technologies:

- Progress 4GL
- Visual Studio 2005
- Visual Studio 2008
- .NET Compact Framework 3.5

I&#39;ve already looked at [WiX][1] and [InstallShield][2], and also the [Altiris made replacement][3] for the old Wise system.

I haven&#39;t played with InstallShield much at all yet, but from everything I&#39;ve seen/installed it seems to be one of the industry favourites. I&#39;ve browsed through some of the Stack Overflow tags relating to [InstallShield][4] and I&#39;m curious to see what the group says about it.

Do I just by default go to them? How good is WiX at non-.NET stuff?

  [1]: http://wix.sourceforge.net/
  [2]: http://www.acresso.com/products/is/installshield-overview.htm
  [3]: http://www.symantec.com/business/wise-installation-studio
  [4]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InstallShield


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

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 

&gt; **Windows protected your PC**
&gt; 
&gt; Windows SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting,
&gt; Running this app might put your PC at risk.

I think Microsoft has some strategy to verify the application besides the digital signature. Has anyone has the experience for this issue and please give me some clue to fix this issue?

How to pass the smart screen on Win8 when install a signed application?

 
I&#39;m sure this is fairly easy, but I&#39;ve kind of had a hard time with it. I&#39;ve got a custom action that executes a different (non-msi) installer on installation. Unfortunately, I&#39;ve noticed that it also executes the installer on UNinstallation!

I&#39;ve looked through the options but I cant&#39; seem to find out how to stop this. If anybody could help me I would be incredibly grateful.

Also, how do I set a custom action to go off only during UNinstall? Any help is greatly appreciated guys!

How to execute custom action only in install (not uninstall)

Google Chrome auto updates itself [every five hours][1]. I want to clone this exact functionality in my own application. What is a way to implement this functionality on Windows?


  [1]: http://www.zdnet.com.au/google-quietly-updates-chrome-339291869.htm

How does one auto update a windows application the way Google Chrome does?

I&#39;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&#39;s better than these two.


Free software for Windows installers: NSIS vs. WiX?

`msiexec` is command prompt software that installs an [MSI][1] 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 you have to call the `msiexec` program and give it a `/x` or `/uninstall`.

How can I uninstall an MSI from the command line without using the `msiexec` routine?

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Installer


Uninstalling an MSI file from the command line without using msiexec

Should I wrap all the files I want to install in individual components?
What is the advantage of putting several files in one component?


One file per component or several files per component?

WiX files always seem to include this line:

    &lt;Directory Id=&quot;TARGETDIR&quot; Name=&quot;SourceDir&quot;&gt;

What is &quot;SourceDir&quot;? What is it used for? It&#39;s not a real directory name. Is it some kind of magical value?


In WiX files, what does Name=&quot;SourceDir&quot; refer to?

How are properties set on [CustomActionData][1] to be retrieved by a deferred custom action?

  [1]: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2w2fhwzz%28v=vs.80%29.aspx


How to pass CustomActionData to a CustomAction using WiX?

How do I create a shortcut on the desktop from a wix setup project?


Create shortcut to desktop using WiX

I want to extract the MSI of an EXE setup to publish over a network.

For example, using Universal Extractor, but it doesn&#39;t work for Java Runtime Environment.

Extract MSI from EXE

When I reinstall the [AppFabric 1.1][1], Why I&#39;m getting this error **&quot;AppFabric installation failed because installer MSI returned with error code : 1603&quot;**.?

I did run it with administrative rights.

Below is the error log.

&lt;pre&gt;
&lt;code&gt;
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  ===== Logging started: 2012-06-26 18:20:07+08:00 =====
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  File:             c:\a0ddcd54d09ca070ef\setup.exe
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  InternalName:     Setup.exe
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  OriginalFilename: Setup.exe
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  FileVersion:      1.1.2106.32
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  FileDescription:  Setup.exe
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  Product:          Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Server AppFabric
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  ProductVersion:   1.1.2106.32
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  Debug:            False
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  Patched:          False
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  PreRelease:       False
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  PrivateBuild:     False
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  SpecialBuild:     False
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  Language:         Language Neutral
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  OS Name:                   Windows 7 Ultimate
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  OS Edition:                Ultimate
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  OSVersion:                 Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  CurrentCulture:            en-US
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  Processor Architecture:    x86
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  Event Registration Source :    AppFabric_Setup
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Setup.Upgrade.V1UpgradeSetupModule : Initiating V1.0 Upgrade module.
2012-06-26 18:20:07, Information           Setup  Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Setup.Upgrade.V1UpgradeSetupModule : V1.0 is not installed.
2012-06-26 18:20:33, Information           Setup  Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Setup.Upgrade.V1UpgradeSetupModule : Initiating V1 Upgrade pre-install.
2012-06-26 18:20:33, Information           Setup  Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Setup.Upgrade.V1UpgradeSetupModule : V1.0 is not installed, not taking backup.
2012-06-26 18:20:33, Information           Setup  Enumerating Windows features
2012-06-26 18:20:36, Information           Setup  Executing c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe with commandline -iru.
2012-06-26 18:20:46, Information           Setup  Return code from aspnet_regiis.exe is 0
2012-06-26 18:20:46, Information           Setup  Windows features successfully enabled.
2012-06-26 18:20:46, Information           Setup  Process.Start: C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe /quiet /norestart /i &quot;c:\a0ddcd54d09ca070ef\Packages\AppFabric-1.1-for-Windows-Server-32.msi&quot; ADDDEFAULT=Worker,WorkerAdmin,CacheClient,Setup /l*vx &quot;C:\Users\COMPUTER-Name\AppData\Local\Temp\AppServerSetup1_1(2012-06-26 18-20-46).log&quot; LOGFILE=&quot;C:\Users\COMPUTER-Name\AppData\Local\Temp\AppServerSetup1_1_CustomActions(2012-06-26 18-20-46).log&quot; INSTALLDIR=&quot;C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server&quot; LANGID=en-US
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  Process.ExitCode: 0x00000643
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Error                 Setup  AppFabric installation failed because installer MSI returned with error code : 1603
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Error                 Setup  
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Error                 Setup  AppFabric installation failed because installer MSI returned with error code : 1603
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Error                 Setup  
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Setup.Core.SetupException: AppFabric installation failed because installer MSI returned with error code : 1603
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup     at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Setup.Installer.WindowsInstallerProxy.GenerateAndThrowSetupException(Int32 exitCode, LogEventSource logEventSource)
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup     at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Setup.Installer.WindowsInstallerProxy.Invoke(LogEventSource logEventSource, InstallMode installMode, String packageIdentity, List`1 updateList, List`1 customArguments)
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup     at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Setup.Installer.MsiInstaller.InstallSelectedFeatures()
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup     at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Setup.Installer.MsiInstaller.Install()
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup     at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Setup.Client.SetupWorkflow.StartActionPhase()
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup     at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Setup.Client.ProgressPage.StartAction()
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  === Summary of Actions ===
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  Required Windows components	:  Completed Successfully
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1			:  Completed Successfully
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  Windows Communication Foundation Non-HTTP Activation			:  Completed Successfully
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  IIS Management Console			:  Completed Successfully
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server	:  Failed
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  Hosting Services			:  Failed
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  Cache Client			:  Failed
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  Hosting Administration			:  Failed
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  Microsoft Update	:  Skipped
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  Microsoft Update			:  Skipped
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  
2012-06-26 18:21:46, Information           Setup  ===== Logging stopped: 2012-06-26 18:21:46+08:00 =====

&lt;/code&gt;
&lt;/pre&gt;


  [1]: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27115

All Windows Installer Solutions on Gang of Coders

Total of 35 Windows Installer Solutions

Visual Studio Installer > How To Launch App at End of Installer