Windows Service - Creating an installer Visual studio 2012 How?

15
votes

I'm developing a Windows service in VS2012 and the setup/deployment part has been removed. So I'm not able to create a setup project. I would like to hear what you guys could recommend for a good easy to use the installer. I need to take some inputs, only strings, under the installation of the service. I've been looking at WiX but that seems a bit complex, and I only got 1 or 2 days to make this installer.

So what installer should I use other than Wix?

4
vb.netwindows-servicesinstallationvisual-studio-2012
I believe that there's a Light/Trial version of InstallShield that you should find somewhere in the Visual Studio menus (or at least, an offer to install it). But I'd personally use Wix. Also, make up your mind what visual studio version you're using (your tags don't match your question) – Damien_The_Unbeliever
Agreed, use WiX. For the time being it's the best thing out there. – Jeff
See stackoverflow.com/questions/11994725/… – Manuel Alves

4 Answers

4
votes

I've had really bad experiences with InstallShield LE (the one that comes with Visual Studio 2012), especially for Windows Services. The features that you need to install a service (custom actions, etc), don't come with the light version.

What I'm planning to do for the current Windows service I'm working on is to build it with Topshelf, which (amongst other things) means installing your service is as simple as running MyServiceApp.exe install. I'm sure even InstallShield will let you run your app once it's installed, and then your app/Topshelf can install the service component.

If InstallShield doesn't work for you, I've had good results before with NSIS. Simple, powerful, free, decent documentation. It looks a bit clunky.

1
votes

Here is a list of setup tools which can get you started: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software

If you don't have a lot of time for creating the installer, I recommend using a commercial tool like Advanced Installer or InstallShield. You need a license, but they are focused on usability (do more in less time).

0
votes

You can do it with InstallShield LE... You can add custom actions "After Register Product" for install and for "After System Changes". These custom actions can run an EXE on the machine.

Make sure you run the command line tools "in system context"

After Register Product run the version of InstallUtil to your version of .NET eg. path=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319 command=InstallUtil.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\XXX\YYY\ZZZ.exe" replacing XXX YYY and ZZZ to match your install

After System Changes to delete your service name run e.g. sc delete "servicename"

Note you need support for the custom actions within your own service executable (you needed this in earlier VS too).

You can find more information about SC here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/251192

-2
votes

To add an installer for a service, you just need to right-click on the designer for the service and click "Add Installer".

Here's the walkthrough: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zt39148a.aspx