For reasons that do not depend on me (client wish) an MSI installer that checks the prerequisites without installing them is needed. If the prerequisites are not found an error should be displayed. I searched and the only option found is to manually write scripts that check each individual prerequisite condition (Redistributables->select a prerequisite->right click-> edit prerequisite->Conditions). Is this the only way something like this can be done? We have Installshield 2012 and a Basic MSI project (if with a different project type this can be achieved the it's not a problem).
You can achieve this by adding Install condition in your Basic MSI project, see below KB article to add the install condition based on the system search.
First you have to find the condition how you can verify whether the prerequisite can be detected in the target system(mostly based registry or existence of file/folder), then add a system search in the System search view.
Use the property configured in the system search in the Install condition to see the presence of the prerequisite, and add the appropriate message to display if it is not present in the target system
