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justincbmg
Level 2

Help launching an installer within an installer

Hello, I'm very new using Installshield (We use Installshield Pro 2008), and I'm running into an issue.

We have an application which we install using an InstallShield project. We require a 3rd party runtime to be installed, (for which we have a .exe), for our software to work. What I want to do, is launch the runtimesetup.exe within our setup.exe. I have tried several things within installshield to accomplish this, but have been unable to make it work. From what I've been reading, you can't launch msis within an msi, so my question simply is, how do I run this exe within our installer?
I have seen suggestions about setting it up as a prerequisite, but I have no idea how to do that, or if it is even what we want to do in this case. I have also seen suggestions about launching it in the UI step, however when I tried moving my custom action to the UI phase it caused "Error 2762. Cannot write script record. Transaction not started" (I followed the directions here: http://kb.flexerasoftware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=Q107731&sliceId=). The only thing is, I don't have a custom action with Msiexec.exe in the filename property, only the runtimesetup.exe is in there, so I'm not sure if that was what I wanted anyway.

I also have heard of writing some sort of script or making a different installer which will deploy both my installer, and the runtime one, but I don't know hot o do that, and I also don't see how it will get around the problem since I would be running two installers inside the main installer, instead of just one.

Could anybody suggest the best course of action, and point me in the direction of some examples or the proper tutorial/helpfile describing what I need?
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DebbieL
Level 17

The InstallShield help has information on how to create setup prerequisites and add them to projects. Here are links to a few help topics to get you started.
Setup Prerequisites
Defining Setup Prerequisites
Setup Prerequisite Editor Reference
Configuring a Release that Includes Setup Prerequisites

Prerequisites are probably the best option. If you try something like launching the setup during the UI sequence, the installation won't be run if users launch your main setup silently.
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gbaltazar
Level 6

You can create an InstallScript program...endprogram style scripted installer to launch multiple MSI's in a single executable package. Add the MSI files in the Support Files and reference the from Installscript.
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