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JoderCoder
Level 8

Pre-requisites

My application requires .Net 3.0 at minimum. And I will include .Net in the package as a Setup pre-requisite. Since .Net is quite big in size, I will create two different packages, one with .Net and one without .Net. Here are my questions:

1. I read from the documents that package without .Net can be .msi, but package with .Net has to be setup.exe. This brings some confusion for end users as we will make both packages available to the user, we would prefer having single type extension, only msi for example. I know setup.exe have some more power than msi like pre-reqs, localization etc. Can msi do anything that setup.exe cant? If not, I would prefer having a single compressed setup.exe for my both packages. The only thing I know is that Active Directory can deploy only msi files; not setup.exe. But I believe other tools like SMS, Altiris etc can deploy setup.exe, correct?

2. In my package without .Net, I would like to have an install condition so that package cannot be installed on a machine with no .Net. What is the best practice for that? Doing a System Search? If so, it will not be that straightforward since I have to consider that .NET 4 or 5 might be released in the future. I might need to write a Custom Action for that. Does InstallShield provide a means to check the DotNet other than System Search?

3. Having said that my application requires .Net 3.0 at a minimum, I would like to deploy .Net 3.5 if the target machine doesnt have 3.0. How can I do that?

4. InstallShield creates ISSetupPrerequisites folder for the pre-req, is it possible to compress that folder in the exe as well?

Thanks for any help!
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(5) Replies
JoderCoder
Level 8

Another question would be that does Automation Interface expose an API for pre-reqs?
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MichaelU
Level 12 Flexeran
Level 12 Flexeran

Assuming that your project type is Basic MSI, the difference between a setup.exe and a product.msi build is that the setup.exe runs some code before launching the product.msi file. For your customers who need to deploy a raw .msi file, you can instruct them how to extract it from setup.exe by using the /a command-line parameter. You can similarly tell them that when they install it that way, .NET 3.0 or higher is required and will not be automatically configured.

You can look for .NET in a few different ways, including system searches for registry keys (look for the Net Framework Setup\NDP key), or with the MsiNetAssemblySupport property (prepopulated by Windows Installer). Choosing which to use will depend on your needs.

You may be able to modify the prerequisite to only install if both the 3.0 and 3.5 keys are not present; I think the current 3.5 prerequisite only checks the 3.5 key.

The release has a setting on the setup.exe tab to choose where the prerequisites are placed. If you choose "extract from setup.exe" they will be compressed into setup.exe at build.
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Sconce654
Level 2

Installscript can be captured by Wise Package Studio by doing a prescan and then a post scan. Basically you do a prescan of your system, which scans the registry, files, versions, odbc's, etc. Then you install you software, and do the post scan which does the same as the prescan. This method compares the two to see what changes you have to your system vivavideomaker.
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aostvapk
Level 2

PreScan and PostScan both are very important which must be performed in order to maintain the system without any issues and errors from any kind of software applications and setup files. On the other hand, you can also have install live tv apps such as aos tv on pc by performing the prescan inside bluestacks and post scan after the installation.

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ritubansal
Level 2

API TESTING is a software testing type that validates Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The purpose of API Testing is to check the functionality, reliability, performance, and security of the programming interfaces. In API Testing, instead of using standard user inputs(keyboard) and outputs, you use software to send calls to the API, get output, and note down the system's response. API tests are very different from GUI Tests kgtopg and won't concentrate on the look and feel of an application. It mainly concentrates on the business logic layer of the software architecture.

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