Visual Studio InstallShield setup project not installing prerequisites from setup

[flupperd]

I've created a VSTO PowerPoint add-in in Visual Studio. To distribute this to the users I have created an InstallShield setup project.

After building this project the installation and the add-in work fine if I use the option to download the prerequisites from the Internet.

However, when I use the option to extract the prerequisites from the Setup.exe, it doesn't work: the add-in itself is installed, but the prerequisites aren't.
I know that the prerequisites are included in the setup because without them the Setup.exe is around 2MB, with prereqs it's about 290MB.

I have the two necessary prerequisites selected in the Prerequisites view:


In the Releases view, under the Setup.exe-tab of SingleImage, the "InstallShield Prerequisites Location" is also set to "Extract from Setup.exe".

But the installer just won't install the .NET Framework 4.5 (if necessary, is usually present on the user's systems), and the VSTO Runtime even though I've included it in the setup file!
This causes an error when trying to launch PowerPoint with the add-in as the prerequisites must be installed for the add-in to work.

Why doesn't it work? The options are enabled for the setup to retrieve the required redistributables from the setup.exe-file. I followed this tutorial and everything went according to plan.
Is there some other option or setting I have to configure for the installer to install the prerequisites first before installing the add-in itself?

Any help is much appreciated.

[MichaelU]

I'm not sure about the specifics of this prerequisite, but it's possible that the .prq file used in the downloaded case has been updated on our servers. If there was a mistake in the original, this could result in the non-download (i.e. the original) failing to install when it should, and the downloading one using corrected information. Try editing the prerequisite to find its download URL (Properties tab, Alternate download location), and see if the prerequisite at that URL differs from the one on your machine.

[flupperd]

Hello,

It appears there is no .prq-file present in my project. Could this be the problem? If so, how can I make the project generate it's necessary .prq-file?
The way I create the setup.exe is by building the solution in Release configuration, (the setup project in SingleImage configuration), so I thought this would also generate the .prq-file if the setup needed this file to install it's prerequisites.

EDIT: you made notice of "Try editing the prerequisite to find its download URL (Properties tab, Alternate download location)", I do not have this option available and when I looking this up online I stumbled upon this link: the steps described in this post are also not available to me. I am working from a InstallShield Limited Edition from my Visual Studio, so I don't have a full InstallShield.

Regards