Where should I check for .net framework when building a windows installer?

Question

I am really confused. What I want to do is check to see if .net 4.0 is installed. If it is not, then install it from our company's URL.

I noticed a Installation URL in the Property Pages associated with Prerequisites.

1) If I add a URL pointing to our company's URL, then select .net Framework 4 and select "Download prerequisites from the component vendor's web site" -- it tries to download it from Microsoft web site which I don't want.

2) If I select "Download prerequisites from the same location as my application", the build will fail if I don't have the dotNetFx40_Full_setup.exe in the same location as my install files

3)Then I noticed that I can also set the installURL in the Launch Conditions to point to our company's website and set the Version to .net Framework 4

Which is the preferred method? Prerequisites or Launch conditions?

Thanks!

Answer 1

It is usually better in prerequisites because the launch condition basically just prevents the install from proceeding. It's just a check in case somebody launches the MSI without running the setup.exe bootstrapper. The launch condition will give you a URL, but the customer then needs to download and install it. The prerequisites exe does it all for you.