MSM Merge Modules in Visual Studio 2013

3
votes

Could someone please let me know where I might find resources for creating MSM files? While I am able to create MSI files using InstallShield, it seems that Visual Studio no longer supports Merge Module Projects, judging by the link below and the screenshot of my version of Visual Studio 2013 - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z6z02ts5(v=vs.80).aspx

enter image description here

To create a new merge module project:

  1. On the File menu, point to Add, then click New Project.
  2. In the resulting Add New Project dialog box, in the Project types pane, open the Other Project Types node and select Setup and Deployment Projects.
  3. In the Templates pane, choose Merge Module Project.
2
c#visual-studiovisual-studio-2013merge-module
Have you looked at WiX? - Ian Gilroy
I did, however, I thought VS 2013 had that built-in (in that it also has InstallShield installed), since the older versions have it. WiX has a rather high learning curve. Are there alternatives? - theGreenCabbage
Setup projects got removed from Visual Studio with a version of InstallShield as their replacement. At one point WiX was going to be part of Visual Studio but it remains completely separate (albeit the tool that Microsoft itself uses to create installers for many of its products) - Ian Gilroy
Ian, I am looking at both WiX and IsWix. From my understanding they both contain the Merge Module Project Templates? I have one SQLite database file that's in the form of a DLL that needs to be installed to a particular directory in the user's computer. Could you give me some pointers on how to navigate the monstrosity that is of WiX? - theGreenCabbage
I haven't used IsWiX. For WiX itself, I guess the usual starting places are wix.tramontana.co.hu and wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3. I should stress that I'm no expert in any of this; every 6 months or so I have to re-learn just enough to get whatever I'm trying to do working :-) - Ian Gilroy

2 Answers

8
votes

For those still looking to use Merge Modules in Visual Studio; there is an official Microsoft extension for Visual Studio 2013 that lets you create Merge Module projects again.

Information on the extension, click here. The page leads to the Visual Studio Gallery where you can download the extension

Update 17 Sept 2015: an extension for VS2015 is also available here.

3
votes

As discussed in the comments, Setup projects got removed from Visual Studio; a version of InstallShield was provided as their replacement. The standard alternative to InstallShield is WiX. WiX is somewhat arcane at first - it's a pretty thin layer over Windows Installer - but there are quite a few resources and examples out there.

Good resources for getting into WiX are http://wix.tramontana.co.hu/ and http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/. You can download the tooling from http://wixtoolset.org/