I am working on a Basic MSI project and I have started using feature prerequisites, as it allows to perform some custom actions before the prerequisites are installed.
I have noticed that a ISInstallPrerequisites custom action is scheduled only in the UI sequence.
Is there any reason to add this custom action only in the UI sequence?
Does that mean a silent installation (which by definition does not run the UI sequence) will not allow to install the feature prerequisites?
Would it be a problem to move this custom action at the beginning of the Execute Sequence?
If your goal is to have the installer that is kicked off from your installer to be hidden from the user, you could pass command line arguments accordingly in the prerequisite definition.
1. Go to Redistributables view 2. Right click the prerequisite and select Edit Prerequisite 3. Go to Application to Run tab 4. Add parameters accordingly
NOTE: You would want to include it in both text boxes since you are wanting the prerequisite to be hidden even when your main installer is not running in silent mode.
Step four would vary depending on what command arguments are supported for your desired installer.
SQL Server 2005 for instance, takes a /qn flag to signify that it should be completely hidden.
FYI - If you are ever installing SQL Server, I would highly recommend using /qb instead of /qn. We have found that SQL Server fails at an unacceptable rate and in cases where it does fail users will not see a descriptive error message other than that it failed if using /qn flag. The /qb flag will be fully visible but not allow any user interaction.
Thank you for your answer. This is not what I was looking for.
What I meant was: If I enable some feature prerequisites in my Basic MSI project, then the ISInstallPrerequisites custom action is added to the UI sequence, which allows to install the feature prerequisites when the UI sequence is executed.
The problem is: as ISInstallPrerequisites only appears in the UI sequence, the prerequisites are not installed when I launch my setup in silent mode. Indeed, launching my setup in silent mode means that the UI sequence is not executed, hence ISInstallPrerequisites is not called.
Prerequisites can, in general, only be launched outside the execute sequence. This is because many prerequisites install MSI packages, and you can only do one of those at a time. If you need to support silent installations with feature prerequisites, launch them with a command line similar to setup.exe /s /v"/qn ADDLOCAL=...", where ADDLOCAL=... (replace the ellipsis) is optional, but allows specific features to be specified and assumed for feature prerequisite selection.
If you run SQL Server Express silent...with all dialog options defaulting, can you still see a progress bar to alert the user that something is happening?
Last I knew, SQL Server Express only had an EXE version. Since we can only capture and show progress from raw MSI packages, you would have to instruct the SQL Server Express EXE to show its progress somehow (if that's possible).
