How to Enable WiX Projects in Visual Studio 2017

62
votes

In Visual Studio 2017's New Project dialog, there is no entry for Windows Installer XML (WiX).

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Is it possible to enable WiX projects in Visual Studio 2017?

6
visual-studiowixvisual-studio-2017wix3.10
I just installed the "Wix Toolset Visual Studio 2017 Extension" that I downloaded from here and it worked beautifully in VS2017: marketplace.visualstudio.com/… - Robert Bernstein
Too bad it doesn't work for Visual Studio 2017 Build edition. At least that's what I'm running on TFS. Any way to "force" an extension in? Most programs have an "extensions" folder. Not Microsoft? - Brain2000

6 Answers

36
votes

WiX v3.11.0.1507 provides full support for the VS 2017 Extension For WiX. The Release Notes provide insight into why it has taken so long to provide the extension and compatibility with the extension and older versions of WiX

Note: You can use the "WiX Toolset Visual Studio 2017 Extension" with previous versions of the WiX Toolset but there is a forwards compatibility issue when building managed custom actions that is only fixed in the WiX v3.11 RC release. In other words, if you have managed custom actions and you want to use VS 2017 then you must upgrade to WiX v3.11 RC.

Edit: The VS 2019 Extension is now available.

The Wix Releases Page has links to the other extensions.

39
votes

You can manually enable Visual Studio 2017 compatibility with WiX 3.10 or earlier:

  1. Close all instances of Visual Studio.

  2. Copy
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX to
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX

    (In the destination path, replace "Enterprise" with "Professional" or "Community" depending on your edition.)

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    You may need to provide Administrator permission:

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    The result will look like this:

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  3. Copy C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\WiX to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft\WiX

  4. Then execute the following command as Administrator:

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\devenv" /setup

    (Again, replace "Enterprise" with "Professional" or "Community" depending on your edition.)

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When you open Visual Studio 2017, WiX 3.10 and earlier projects will be compatible.

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17
votes

I found that I also had to copy the WiX folder from "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft". Without this, I got an error trying to load my WiX project that one of the MSBuild targets files couldn't be found.

6
votes

WiX now offers support for Visual Studio 2017.

All you have to do is:

1
votes

The answer by Chris works, but on my machine, for some reason, the Wix folder in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX" had only one template named "CustomActionCPP.zip". I had to search for a complete Wix folder in other older versions of Visual Studio. It worked for me by copying Wix from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX\ProjectTemplates".

Also, had to apply the answer by Basim, by copying Wix from "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft" to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\Microsoft".

0
votes

I have installed ONLY VS2017 and had to copy from another machine where VS2015 was installed the mentionen folder of @Chris Schiffhauer. The same for the folder of @Basim mentioned. Addiontally I had to copy the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Wix Toolset 3.10\" because when I have installed WiX on my machine in this folder were still some assemblies missing.