WiX bootstrapper for .NET 4.5

3

votes

I am new to WiX and have built a standalone installer. I would like to detect if the system has .NET 4.5 on it and prompt the user to install this. My development environment is Visual Studio 2010 using the WiX 3.7 toolset.

From some of the tutorials I have seen I should either use WiX 3.6 Burn or use the WiX bootstrapper project template in Visual Studio 2010.

For some reason, when I installed Wix 3.7 I don't have the bootstrapper template (I am not sure if I am missing an extension to download).

Is it better to use the bootstrapper template over Burn? What are the differences?

visual-studio-2010wixwix-extension

I see a lot of references to Burn, yet there is no burn.exe in my Wix 3.7 distribution. – Stealth Rabbi

2

votes

You need to create a new project named "Bootstrapper Project" (this template must be in your Visual Studio 2010 installation, related to the Windows Installer XML). Here are very good blog posts with manuals:

Introducing Managed Bootstrapper Applications by Heath Stewart
WiX Burn – tips/tricks by Neil Sleightholm

1

votes

Wix burn, is Wix Bootstrapper. They are the same thing. Burn is simply the name given to the Wix Bootstrapper, but they do tend to switch around between calling it "wix burn" and "wix bootstrapper". But as I've said they are the same thing.

Here is my wix bootstrapper which checks for version of .net then downloads and installs it before installing my .msi You will need to add a reference to WixNetFxExtension.dll

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>


<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi"  xmlns:bal="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/BalExtension" xmlns:util="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/UtilExtension">


  <Bundle Name="MyProgramInstaller" Version="1.0.0.0" Manufacturer="myCompany" UpgradeCode="yourcodehere">

<!-- here's the license statement, would suggest you update this to something more useful. -->
    <BootstrapperApplicationRef Id="WixStandardBootstrapperApplication.RtfLicense" />
    
   
		<Chain>
    <!-- here's the .net download installer you can change this using the following chart -->
    <!-- http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/customactions/wixnetfxextension.html -->
      <PackageGroupRef Id="NetFx451Web"/>
      <MsiPackage Id="myProgram" SourceFile="$(var.SolutionDir)SetupProject1/bin/Release/myProgramInstaller.msi"/>
		</Chain>

    
    
	</Bundle>
</Wix>

WiX bootstrapper for .NET 4.5

2 Answers