How to include prerequisites with msi/Setup.exe in WIX

Question

I\'m trying to combine my package in a single setup EXE file and upload it to the Internet.

I have created a Microsoft bootstrapper that contains Setup.exe with proj

Answer 1

You can use something like NSIS to wrap up your bootstrapper and MSI. You'll need to write a simple NSIS script, like this:

!define PRODUCT_NAME "YourProductNameHere"

Name "${PRODUCT_NAME}"
OutFile "SetupWrapper.exe"
Icon "Setup.ico"
BrandingText " "
SilentInstall silent

Section

  SetOutPath "$TEMP\${PRODUCT_NAME}"

  ; Add all files that your installer needs here
  File "setup.exe"
  File "product.msi"

  ExecWait "$TEMP\${PRODUCT_NAME}\setup.exe"
  RMDir /r /REBOOTOK "$TEMP\${PRODUCT_NAME}"

SectionEnd

Save this to a file named SetupWrapper.nsi, and edit the product name and paths to setup.exe and your MSI file. Now you can build this file to get a single EXE file that contains the bootstrapper and the MSI.

When this EXE is run, it will not have any UI of its own -- it will simply extract your bootstrapper and MSI to a temp folder, then execute the bootstrapper, and clean up afterwards.

You can also add a post-build step to your project to build this wrapper, which will automatically generate the combined wrapper EXE. To do this, you can add a command like this:

path-to-NSIS\nsis-2.46\makensis.exe /V2 your-project-path\SetupWrapper.nsi