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Invoke another MSI from an MSI

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4 Mar 2009CPOL2 min read 73.3K   2K   22   10
Demo showing how to invoke a Microsoft Windows Installer wrapped in a Microsoft Windows Installer.

Introduction

I was looking for a way to solve the problem of Windows’ concurrent (nested) installations as described in the URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa368010(VS.85).aspx. My goal is to wrap an MSI based InstallShield EXE or MSI within the Visual Studio Windows Installer Project. I was able to find some useful tips online, and I have converged the information and found a solution described below. I also found Arnaldo Sandoval's "Installer Class and Custom Actions" article very helpful (URL: http://www.devcity.net/Articles/339/1/article.aspx).

How it works

I created two projects in the solution:

  • InstallerHelper – A console application project with C# code to enable code based custom actions.
  • MsiInstaller – A Windows installer project that creates the MSI.

First, for the InstallerHelper project, I created two simple classes:

  • InstallerClass - This installer class overrides the base installer class to provide additional functionality for Custom Actions.
  • InstallerHelper - This helper class is used to invoke the MSI based InstallShield EXE or MSI.

In general, the InstallerClass class calls the InstallerHelper class to invoke the MSI based InstallShield EXE or MSI. Here is what I have achieved in my MSI installer demo:

MsiDemo

Next, for the MsiInstaller project, I added to the File System both the output from the InstallerHelper project, and the MSI based InstallShield EXE or MSI to be installed on the target machine. I found that you can actually drag and drop multiple dependency files and folders to the File System view.

VS001

I added the primary output InstallerHelper as the Custom Actions for all.

VS002

This achieves the goal of invoking an MSI within a Visual Studio Windows Installer Project. When I run the MSI, it will first install the MSI based InstallShield EXE or MSI, but not executing it. Then, it runs the InstallerHelper which kicks-off the EXE or MSI.

Tips

A tip I found is that if the imported MSI based InstallShield EXE or MSI already contains Custom Actions, which is very common, then when you add the EXE or MSI to the Visual Studio Windows Installer Project, the Custom Actions is carried over to the Windows Installer Project. This gives the undesirable result of concurrent installation because some of the Custom Actions from the embedded MSI are invoked while the wrapper MSI is running. A simple solution is to use Orca.exe, select the CustomAction, and delete the ones that are being imported form the embedded EXE or MSI install process.

History

  • Feb 2009 - first release.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


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Systems Engineer
Canada Canada
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Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionYour solution is still helping us after 8 years... Pin
sumu_bade28-Apr-17 6:57
sumu_bade28-Apr-17 6:57 
QuestionMsiInstaller folder has only one file viz.MsiInstaller.vdproj Pin
RCBGouda22-May-15 12:03
RCBGouda22-May-15 12:03 
QuestionDO NOT USE THIS APPROACH ! Pin
Tarmo Pikaro18-Oct-13 11:30
Tarmo Pikaro18-Oct-13 11:30 
QuestionThank You Pin
IamPhani29-May-13 1:51
IamPhani29-May-13 1:51 
SuggestionIf the main objective is just to call a second *.msi than... Pin
netxsk11-Jan-13 3:37
netxsk11-Jan-13 3:37 
GeneralRe: If the main objective is just to call a second *.msi than... Pin
manikyamp20-Mar-13 2:03
manikyamp20-Mar-13 2:03 
GeneralRe: If the main objective is just to call a second *.msi than... Pin
netxsk26-Apr-13 2:43
netxsk26-Apr-13 2:43 
SuggestionYou can also do to the same thing by using Visual Studio Custom Prerequisites Pin
kensurferca13-Dec-11 14:07
kensurferca13-Dec-11 14:07 
GeneralUsing predefined installation path in nested installer Pin
tonyt2-Dec-09 5:52
tonyt2-Dec-09 5:52 
GeneralRe: Using predefined installation path in nested installer Pin
netxsk11-Jan-13 3:17
netxsk11-Jan-13 3:17 

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