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Introduction

My customer had come up with two questions when i am trying to deliver my project.

1. Need only one Standalone installation packages to install the application in users machine.

2. Application should install in silent/unattended mode.

Basically my client's support division not familiar with the distribution of software and not familiar with .net framework dependency. So my client wants to maintain a single installer file which helps the admin/support to install the application in target machine by just double clicking on it.

Silent/unattend/hands-free mode: Installation is one which does not require user interaction, except the indication of progress.

First of all i thought Visual Studio 2005 comes with lots of setup and deployment wizards, so it must have one type which generates the single self extract setup file to install the application and the .net framework prerequesties. But when i tried, VS 2005 gave me two files rather than one package.

1. setup.exe - used to install the .net prerequesites if the target machine not have one.

2. myproject.msi - contains all my project exe and dependency files.

I am sure it can be achieved through the giant deployment softwares like installshield, wise and winzip. But the license matters makes me think lot. It took sometime to find the solution but i managed to find a way to get it done by using Microsoft IExpress.

IExpress

IExpress is a utility which comes with the IE Administrative Kit (IEAK) (hidden program :-).

IExpress creates an output file, and executable (.exe) that contains all the files specified, and the instructions to carry out the extraction of these files. The files are stored compressed in Microsoft's cabinet format.

Click the Start Button, goto Run and type "iexpress".

More information can be found here.

Assumptions

I have assumed that the readers of this article must be familiar with Visual Stuidio 2005 setup and deployment wizard and functionalities.

Steps to make self extract package:

In brief,

Step to make the installation in silent/unattended mode:

• Create a project that we want to install.
• Create a setup and deployment wizard that will install our application in the target machine.
• In the 'File System' window of the setup project, add the primary output of our application.
• View the 'User Interface' window of the setup project. Remove all the UI dialogs from Install>start, Install > progress and Install > End.
• It depends on the requirement, you may leave progress bar dialog or confirmation dialogue to notify the user that the setup is complete. (optional)
• Make sure that the property 'Create setup program to install prerequisite components' is selected in setup project properties.
• Build the setup project.
• Now we have two files (myapplicaiton.msi and setup.exe) as output of setup project.

Step to create the installation files / dependent files in a standalone installation package.

• Once it is done, run the command 'IExpress' from the 'Start > Run' or command window.
• The Iexpress window guide you what needs to be packed and which setup file needs to be executed after extracting files.
• Nowe we have only one package(<installpackage>.exe) which contains the our standard setup files generated from VS 2005.

After the steps are done now we will have only one package to distribute to the admin. It is very easy for them to keep only one file in their repository rather than multiple files. .

History

23 Aug - Initial Draft

25 Oct - Updated article with more explanation (thanks bill)

Note: After reading this article, please pass your comments and suggestion. It help me to correct my mistakes and can help other new readers.

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Setup with Prequisites myvbtest 20:32 10 Jun '08   Sir, if i have to install .net framework and other Prequisites with setup on client then how can i do this. Balram Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Facing Problem when uses change option in Add/Remove from control panel for the installed product Member 2157491 22:18 3 Jun '08   I've used IExpress.exe for creating the productname.exe installation file. everything works fine as expected. It installs the product correctly and product is working. But when I try to use change option from Add/Remove for the same product then it prompts an issue with message "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable" ..... with a browse button to get the folder containing the product's .msi file. as client will not have this file due to productname.exe provided, End client can not proceed. Once user tried this step then product itself also gets corrupted and doesnt run and prompts the same window message. I've checked the behavior of installation by using 'productname.exe' file. it extracts .exe and .msi files in temporary folder and installs the product and then deletes the extracted files. that is causing missing files. please can you help me to avoid this issue. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 Using this with Micorosft Component Installer 2.0 SDK Laimis 13:46 13 Nov '07   Has anyone tried using IExpress with the component intsaller sdk? The installer SDK comes with the PSetup.exe file which has its own ini file. In that file, I tell the PSetup.exe to execute my MSI file as a post prereq install step. The PSetup file runs succesfully, but then the MSI file never runs. (My suspicion is that after the PSetup completes, the extracting exe erases the directory together with the MSI file that was located there.) Anyone has any solution to this? I tried running a bat file instead of PSetup. In that bat file I would call PSetup which in turn would call MSI. I also tried in the bat file to call PSetup and then MSI package installation separately with no success. As soon as PSetup finishes the MSI never gets fired to run. Let me know if any of you have any suggestions Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Using Genuine ClickOnce Johan Fourie 13:43 24 Oct '06   Thanks for the article. It taught me about IExpress which I did not know about. I was just wondering. Any reason why you did not want to use the genuine ClickOnce deployment for your project? Cheers Johan Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Using Genuine ClickOnce Ramkumar Vasudevan 6:47 25 Oct '06   Johan, My client wants to maintain only one single executable installer file (self extracting file) to keep all my project files and dotnet framework files. An admin can store this only one 'Single Executable Installer file' in the software repository and he/she can use this file whenever he wants to install to the target machine. This technique does not give room to miss any important files to run the system. when admin/user double click it, it extracts the files to the temporary directory, waits for the installation program to complete and deletes the temporary files. I have given an idea in this article to simplify the standard installation but not the deployment features. Happy Programming!!! All the best!!! Ramkumar Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink "ClickOnce" is NOT what you are describing BillWoodruff 10:22 23 Oct '06   Perhaps you mean "click once" in the sense that your technique produces a single executable file ? ClickOnce is a new technology package from MS embedded in Visual Studio 2005 that will publish an application to an internet site, to an ftp site, to a local file system, to a network share (intranet), or even to a cd rom. See : http://blogs.msdn.com/clickonce/default.aspx IExpress seems to be a tool for installing custom Internet Explorer versions. You seem to imply it can be used to install a .NET application ? Please clarify. I really cannot make sense of your article. thanks, Bill "The greater the social and cultural distances between people, the more magical the light that can spring from their contact." Milan Kundera in Testaments Trahis Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: "ClickOnce" is NOT what you are describing Ramkumar Vasudevan 10:52 23 Oct '06   Bill, I have just meant that it is a single click silent installation of .net application. It is not at all related to the new feature 'ClickOnce' in VS 2005. Yep. You are right. The IExpress is used to install the custom IE versions. But my article explains that this can be used to generate the single exe file out of multiple files. The purpose of generating single exe is very much useful for the system administrator to maintain it without missing any dependent files. The output setup exe file is not at all dependent on IExpress components. You can just copy the "Single" setup exe in target machine and install it even the target machine does not have anything related to Iexpress. I think i need to change the word 'clickonce' from my article. it may mislead the concept. Thanks for finding. Hope i have answered your question. Happy Programming!!! All the best!!! Ramkumar Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: "ClickOnce" is NOT what you are describing BillWoodruff 22:39 23 Oct '06   Dear Ramkumar, (Namaste if you are from North India, Vannacum if you are from South India) I think you could improve your article by clarifying a little more : 1. exactly what you mean by "silent mode" install. 2. instead of saying "single click application" use a more detailed description : I don't know if you are talking about something that produces a standard .exe file that the user launches by double-clicking on or not. 3. Describe exactly what is produced on the developer's machine, exactly what is deployed to a server or distributed to the end-user, and exactly what the end-user sees ... or doesn't see. 4. Since you are using IEAK technology in a "non-standard" way, please describe the pre-requisites for using it (if any). And please describe any side-effects on the client's machine or any odd things in the deployment process related to IEAK's rather specialized "normal" mode of use. best wishes, Bill Woodruff "The greater the social and cultural distances between people, the more magical the light that can spring from their contact." Milan Kundera in Testaments Trahis Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: "ClickOnce" is NOT what you are describing Ramkumar Vasudevan 6:55 25 Oct '06   Dear Bill, Vanakkam. Appriciated your interest. Thanks for your idea. I am going to update the article with little more explanation. Thanks again. Ramkumar Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Adding Framework file jsudhakar 0:32 30 Aug '06   Hi, nice posting... And i am using vs2005, in setup & deployment project i have checked 'Create setup program to install prerequisite components'. So in my debug folder i will have setup.exe, myapplication.exe, dotnetfx(folder) and inside that folder dotnetfx.exe,instmsia.exe and WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe. So i have created exe from IExpress and i have added the above listed files. But there is no provision to add folders inside the IExpress exe. So i have added only the files available inside the folder 'dotnetfx' not the folder 'dotnetfx'. But while installing the application, it is trying to install the dotnetfx.exe from the folder 'dotnetfx', since this folder is not there in the exe created from IExpress, it is not able to install the framework, and it stopped the installation. So how we could handle the above situation in IExpress Thanks Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Adding Framework file [modified] Ramkumar Vasudevan 5:24 30 Aug '06   Hi, I think the properties of the setup project may be wrong. If you select the 'create setup program to install prerequisite...'. it must generates, only the .msi file (ur application) and setup.exe(framework package). Tell me what option did u select for the property package files and what option did u select for 'specify the install locatiton for prerequisite' properties. will reply back based on your answers. -- modified at 14:54 Wednesday 30th August, 2006 Happy Programming!!! All the best!!! Ramkumar Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Adding Framework file Ramkumar Vasudevan 9:47 30 Aug '06   Hi, I think you might have been selected the option 'Download prerequisits from the same location as my application'. But in my case i have selected the first option which will install the framework from microsoft website. Please make sure you wanna go with the same option. please answer for the questions. 1. Is your client wants only one exe to install your application? 2. Is your client computer does not have internet connection? if you say 'yes' for both, Then we need to do few workarounds to get it done. step 1: compress the dotnetfx folder contents in a zip file (only 3 files). step 2: Then create a batch file with the command 'unzip -o dotnetfx.zip -d dotnetfx. this command is used to extract(unzip) the files in the current directory. So now your debug folder has myapplication.msi, setup.BAT, dotnetfx.ZIP and setup.exe Now run the IExpress and select the batch file as setup command and select the setup.exe as post build command. Please note that you must select the option 'plesae store files using long filenames inside package' option in the IExpress wizard. Thatz it..run the genereated exe and it will do as you wanted. but this trick depends on winzip command line command. you have to take the decision to use this. If you find any other solution...please update me. Expecting your feedback. Happy Programming!!! All the best!!! Ramkumar Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Adding Framework file jsudhakar 22:59 30 Aug '06   Hi Yes, you are correct, i have selected the option 'Download prerequisits from the same location as my application' only Answers for your questions 1. Yes 2. No. They have internet connection. In fact they will download the application from internet only. But we do not want to download the framework also everytime since it is big in size and will take more time to download The solution provided by you which is really good. But the problem is, it is not always guaranteed all the clients will have the WinZip utility. Also as i understood the unzip - command line option which is given by you, only available with winzip latest versions. So i am looking for better solution. Even PKUNZIP is shareware... so anyother idea? Thanks for your great effort Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Adding Framework file DeathCrud 17:57 28 Nov '06   You guys probably figured this out months ago, but I ran across your post whilst searching for my own solution to this prob and thought I'd stop back and post my fix. I made a .bat file named dotnet_inst_pack.bat that created the dotnetfx folder and moved the dependent files into it. I'm not a bat file expert but it's pretty easy and I just Google the code whenever I need to make one. The code I used was... ***************************************************** ::I don't know what this does @ECHO OFF ::I don't know what this does CLS ::Creates dotnetfx direcory MD dotnetfx ::moves the files into that directory MOVE /-Y dotnetfx.exe dotnetfx MOVE /-Y instmsia.exe dotnetfx MOVE /-Y WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe dotnetfx ::deletes the bat file del dotnet_inst_pack.bat **************************************************** I used iexpress.exe to package all the files, including the dotnetfx stuff, which had to be packaged at the root (no folders, as you know). I set the .bat file to be the install file in iexpress then set the setup.exe of my program to run after the bat was done. Viola! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Adding Framework file[Getting Myapplication.msi file not found while running setup programme) [modified] RameshwerE 23:55 24 Aug '07   Hi guyz, I have done everything as explained by vasudevan and Deathcrud ,bt i am getting "unable to locate application file"Myappliaction.msi" error while running the setup ,I have tried with saving those extracted files and i observed that both dotnetfx folder and myapplication.msi files are renamed to big alphabeticals insted of small(normal) names. could you please point me where i may be doing wrong? and also let me know is this setup runs on all windows platforms without installing any extra patches? thanks -- modified at 11:50 Monday 27th August, 2007 Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Adding Framework file[Getting Myapplication.msi file not found while running setup programme) glenioalexandre 10:37 6 Nov '07   I had the same issue. Is there a clue for this? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Adding Framework file[Getting Myapplication.msi file not found while running setup programme) glenioalexandre 11:03 6 Nov '07   I have just found a solution for this issue. If you just select 'Store files using Long File Name inside Package' it will work smoothly Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 4.50/5 Why not MSIEXEC? Oleg Shilo 19:35 25 Aug '06   Am I missing something... If you want to have "one file only" setup, use .msi. Windows knows how to handle this file type. If you want to have no User Interface (UI) just use appropriate command line switches with msiexec.exe: msiexec /i Setup1.msi /qn By using msiexec you can run the same .msi with: No UI Basic UI Reduced UI Full UI progress bar only Also you can run it as an Administrative Install (from network with no UI and no user interaction). Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 Re: Why not MSIEXEC? Ramkumar Vasudevan 17:26 26 Aug '06   Oleg, you are right. But .net setup project generates two files like .msi and .exe files. This msi setup package will install only the application in the client machine if it has .net framework. The setup.exe is prerequiste for installing .net framework in the machine and run the .msi file to install the application. As you said if i give msi file as setup package, i need to give a batch file to run the msi in silent mode? My client does not want to do that too. So it is again two files Thanks for your comments. Ram. Happy Programming!!! All the best!!! Ramkumar Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5

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