VS2010 nested msi installers

Question

In my VS2010 install project I want my installer to start other msi installers, how do i do that? E.g. I have 3 .msi files that i want to be bundled with the msi and start automatically.

Answer 1

The best you can do in Visual Studio is to use custom prerequisites:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/77z6b8tz(VS.80).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165429(VS.80).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165429.aspx

After generating the package manifests, you can add all these files (including the package) in a separate folder in the Visual Studio prerequisites folder, for example:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages

You can then select the prerequisite in your setup project property page.

Other setup authoring tools support adding packages as features inside your main installer.