I am currently creating an InstallScript MSI with the goals of installing prerequisites and asking the user which of 4 applications he would like to install. We are currently in a "code freeze" mode, so these 4 applications cannot be altered at the time. However, we do need to deploy them for testing, so I thought I'd create some sort of a wrapper.
The wrapper itself installs .NET 3.5 and then prompts the user. I wrote this prompt in InstallScript. Once the user chooses, the InstallScript uses the LaunchAppAndWait function to call msiexec.exe.
My question is...is there an easier way of doing this? Are there any better alternatives? My wrapper works, but there is an issue where it installs an functionless program called Wrapper that shows up in the Add/Remove Programs. Can I get rid of this?
There are a few ways you could go about accomplishing this. One way would be to include the .NET 3.5 framework setup prerequisite in your InstallScript MSI project. Or, you can use an InstallScript project as a wrapper. InstallScript projects allow for maintenance mode to be disabled so that they do not appear in Add/Remove Programs or leave any registration on a target machine (Project->Settings | Maintenance contains this setting).
