I have an msi bundled with prerequisites using Wix bootstrapper. After installing the wix bootstrapper application, if i relaunch it again i could do only repair and uninstall. But i need to have modify option also.
In MSI i tried setting the property REINSTALLMODE as "vamus". after doing so, i was able to change / repair/ uninstall w.r.t. msi.
But bootstrapper application doesn't show modify option.
On relaunching the installed wix bootstrapper application, i am expecting to have below options.
change, repair & uninstall.
A modify option makes only sense if you want to remove or add features included in an msi. May be a solution would be to set up your own bookkeeping on installed features and showing this list to the user in a custom bootstrapper application.
Another way to handle this situation may be to show the msi installation dialog which should show a "modify" dialog option.
Related
I'm a bit confused about how wix burn and the main installer are expected to interact with each other. I'm new to wix and windows installer technology in general.
Based on the examples I've seen I was under the impression the burn application would install prereqs then switch to the main installer. However I've seen comments from searches that when using the burn application the main installer becomes secondary and the burn UI should be used instead. This is reinforced by the behavior of the burn application. What I mean is the burn application has it's own license agreement, ARP entry, hides the main installer by default, and has it's own change/repair entry.
This has me confused because the burn application is lacking a lot of functionality the main installer has through MSI. Some functionality I would consider essential such as feature selection, directory selection, and changing features. But this is absent from the burn application.
I feel if I used the burn application as the primary I'd have to recreate the UI, while if I used the main installer for prereqs (if possible) I'd have to recreate the functionality burn provides. Neither approach is desired, so I am wondering how other users of wix handle large projects. Is it standard to write your own custom burn UI? Any help that might clear up this confusion would be greatly appreciated.
Common practice would be to use the Wix bootstrapper (burn) specifically for installing software that is necessary to run your main application, first and automatically.
You would indeed use the main MSI produced by Wix to install your main application. You would use one of the UI (dialog set) sequences already available in Wix. The dialog set will be applicable only for the main MSI, because again, the bootstrapper's main responsibility is to install pre-requisite software for your application to be able to run.
The whole installation process involving your application MSI in conjunction with the bootstrapper executable would be as follows:
Pre-installation
You would build your application MSI.
You would make sure your MSI is specified in your bootstrapper .wxs file.
You would build a Wix bootstrapper executable file which, if correctly set, would
include your appplication MSI.
Installation
You simply run the bootstrapper executable file.
All pre-requisite software will be installed first.
Your main application MSI will now be executed. The user will now be able to set e.q. the installation directory of your application through the dialog sequence of your main MSI (including the other points you've mentioned, if the correct dialog sequence set has been selected before building).
Hope this helps to clear out things a little bit!
My Requirements:
I have few MSI files which need to be installed. User can select which one he wants to install/uninstall. For this purpose I have used WiX bootstrapper where I have used WPF UI to list down all the MSI and few buttons to Intstall/Upgrade/Uninstall
Till now I am able to install selected MSI using InstallCondition but could not manage the uninstall. If I uninstall any of the MSI, the Bundle is also getting uninstalled. Hence it is not showing in the Add/Remove Program.
So I would like to know if there is any way to allow uninstall of individual MSI but not the Bundle itself?
I'm guessing your bundle is getting uninstalled because you are using Engine.Plan(LaunchAction.Uninstall). If you use a different action like Install or Modify, it shouldn't be removed.
To control the install state of the individual MSI packages, I think you can set that in a callback to PlanPackageBegin.
What is the best way to make a silent installer (or unattended) for a program that was already created and has a msi installer?
At work I'm told to create an installer that is automated and does all the interaction with the user automatically so that the user essentially just hits one button and it runs through the msi installer of the program that was already developed. Also I have to make it replace a couple files in the directory.
Is it possible to make a installer automate another installer?
Can it be done using WIX in visual studios or NSIS?
Do I need to be able to pull the already developed installer into Visual Studios? If so how?
Bonus- I would like to be able to design the UI so I can place the company logo on it.
I'm a beginner in this field and learn best from walkthrough's or tutorials.
1) Yes - a bootstrapper is what you are looking for. Burn.exe comes with WiX, more information here
2) Yes to using WiX I know nothing about NSIS.
3) If you have nothing you need to change in the MSI then you could just use WiX to create the bootstrapper that would install your existing MSI.
Bonus) WiX lets you fully edit the install dialogs including logos, licenses, etc. More information here.
Extra thoughts: silent installation is part of MSI; your current installer can be installed silently by executing
msiexec /i <your msi> /quiet
in a command prompt, the command prompt may need admin privileges.
If you need to make changes to the existing msi look at using Dark.exe again a component of WiX that will decompose your existing MSI file into .wxs files. This post may also prove informative on moving to WiX.
I have created a Wix Burn app that I am installing two MSI's with. Works great.
The MSI files install properly
The Wix Burn app registers with ARP.
The MSI files do not register with ARP
I can do Major Upgrades
I can install and uninstall manually with a local copy of the Wix Burn app
I can programmatically execute the Wix Burn app to uninstall (using /x)
The Problem:
I know two way to uninstall using a Wix Burn app:
Click on the Uninstall button in ARP (requires user involvement)
Launch a copy of the Wix Burn app that installed the product
I see in the Wix Burn log that Windows caches my Wix Burn app install in much the same way that MSIEXEC will cache MSI files. Is there a way to programmatically ask Windows or MSI to use the cached version of the Wix Burn app to do the uninstall?
A Possibility:
Presumably I could use MsiGetProductInfo() to get a path to the cached Wix Burn app. To do that, however, I need my app's Product Code. However, Product Codes are not attributes of elements in Wix so I am not seeing how to get a Product Code for a Burn package.
You might be able to solve this by iterating through the Uninstall registry entries. The process is:
Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall.
Iterate through the sub-keys searching for an entry where the Publisher and DisplayName matches your product.
If you find an entry, read the value of QuietUninstallString and run that as a command. For a WIX burn installer this is typically in the form C:\ProgramData\Package Cache\{GUID}\SetupProgram.exe /uninstall /quiet.
If you are using a 64 bit operating system you will also need to search HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall.
I have a Burn bootstrapper which is installing a series of dependency MSIs and then my product MSI. The main product MSI has DisplayInternalUI="yes" which works great and allows me to display custom UI etc etc.
My problem is on uninstall. I'm making use of the FilesInUse dialog in my MSI to prevent uninstall while the application is running. However this dialog only displays if I uninstall using the MSI. If I try to uninstall using the bootstrapper the UI will not display.
Is there any way to make the bootstrapper call the MSI with full UI mode on uninstall?
Burn doesn't support that. There's typically no support for "full UI on uninstall"; instead, the UI for maintenance mode is shown. That could lead to the user doing something other than uninstall but there'd be no way for Burn to know that what it requested wasn't done.