Add a condition on the action so it’s only triggered during installation, not uninstallation. Action run only during Install NOT Installed AND NOT PATCH Action runs during Install and repair NOT REMOVE Run on initial installation only: NOT Installed Run on initial install or when repair is selected. NOT Installed OR MaintenanceMode=”Modify” To only run … Read more
We just went through the whole process of moving from an old Authenticode certificate to a new one (not an EV certificate, just a plain certificate that can be used in our automated build process). Microsoft is no longer providing any means of transferring reputation from an existing certificate to a new one. So don’t … Read more
You can use Wix (which is free) to create an MSI installation package. WiX Tutorial – Creating an Installer MSI with Wix
Sorry if it’s bad etiquette to answer my own question. Recently I stumbled upon the information on DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS property. I created an install with advertised shortcuts and set the DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS property to 1 which produced non-advertised shortcuts. This bypasses ICE43 errors because an advertised shortcut can use a file as a keypath. Because DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS has … Read more
The WiX tutorial is the #1 resource The people on the mailing list are very helpful There’s a The Code Project article, Creating an installer using Wix v3.0, Votive, and Visual Studio 2005/2008 – Part 2, the GUI that might help Ther’s a bunch of blogs, I keep bumping into Rob Mensching’s (old). Rob Mensching’s … Read more
UPDATE, Aug.2018, a new and shorter option: How to create windows installer. Focused on summarizing MSI and its major benefits and to list the major tools available (with download links), as well as mentioning some new, trending deployment technologies. I have worked in software development as a release manager, build engineer, setup developer and as … Read more
Microsoft has listened to the cry for supporting installers (MSI) in Visual Studio and release the Visual Studio Installer Projects Extension. You can now create installers in VS2013, download the extension here from the visualstudiogallery. visual-studio-installer-projects-extension
Use RemoveFile element with On=”uninstall“. Here’s an example: <Directory Id=”CommonAppDataFolder” Name=”CommonAppDataFolder”> <Directory Id=”MyAppFolder” Name=”My”> <Component Id=”MyAppFolder” Guid=”*”> <CreateFolder /> <RemoveFile Id=”PurgeAppFolder” Name=”*.*” On=”uninstall” /> </Component> </Directory> </Directory> Update It didn’t work 100%. It removed the files, however none of the additional directories – the ones created after the installation – were removed. Any thoughts on … Read more
For upgrade code retrieval: How can I find the Upgrade Code for an installed MSI file? (or use the html table export script – shown below in section 2) Short Version The information below has grown considerably over time and may have become a little too elaborate. How to get product codes quickly? (four approaches): … Read more
Have you tried the sc / service controller util? Type sc create at a command line, and it will give you the help entry. I think I’ve done this in the past for Subversion and used this article as a reference: http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/subversion/trunk/notes/windows-service.txt