How to create a .msi file?

[pemo_1880]

Hello,
how do I create .msi file for vs2012 VSTO solution?
I have selected DVD-5 as release format and it creates a .msi file. BUT, the msi file doesn't hold all the files internally. It uses a relative path to a subfolder, that it requires when running the .msi file installation. How can I embed all files into the .msi file?
Peeter

[chiranjeevi]

Hello,

To Achieve the required behavior try below steps:

>Select DVD-5 media type under releases view
>Set compression option to "Compressed" under build tab
>Set Setup Launcher to "No" under setup.exe tab
>Build the solution.

This will create a release with single msi and all the other files compressed into a .cab file.

Now, you will want to compress the .cab file into msi by following below steps:

1. Download the Windows Installer 4.5 SDK , you will get msi45SDK.msi .

2. Install this msi45SDK.msi , once you installed , you will find the msiDB.exe in the following path.

C:\Program Files\Windows Installer 4.5 SDK\TOOLS\msidb.exe

3. Copy this msiDb.exe from the above path.

4. Paste this msiDb.exe to C:\WINDOWS\system32 folder.

5.Open the command prompt give the following command for merge the cab file inside the msi

C:\>msidb.exe -d -a

-d -> name of the database (msi name)

-a -> add the cab file

6. Open ORCA tool select the msi path, click on Tables -> Media Table-> It will display the cab table as Data1.cab

7. Edit the Cabinet column field as #Data1.cab

8. Save the settings.

9. The above steps will be helpful to merge the cab file inside msi

Thanks,
Chiranjeevi