setup file in visual studio

Question

I have made a setup project with visual studio installer project in visual studio.

After installation it gave me 2 setup files like this picture :

I want to know which one should users install so that they can use that application.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

The Setup.exe file checks for prerequisites (which are necessary softwares to install before installing your application like in your case its .Net Framework 4.0, Windows Installer etc).

If they are not installed it installs them from vendors website or installs them from folders provided with your installer.

If system has those prerequisites preinstalled, it then directly calls your msi file which actually installs your application.

The Name "setup.exe" cannot be changed from VS. However msi file name is configurable from VS project.

Answer 2

The two files in your list are probably:

• setup.exe
• sofware setup.msi

Not sure, you need to show extensions. But assuming that I have the extensions correct the basic answer is that the setup.exe is best. However, if your thinking of shipping just that file be very sure to set that on a virgin machine (e.g. a virtual PC).

Now, about what you did not say and perhaps did not ask. If your using VS2010 or earlier and added a VS setup project be aware that VS2012 does not support these projects. Just answering the unasked to, perhaps, answer the real question of adding setup projects. If this is the case check-out ViX. A bit of a learning curve (1-2days) but it is work it.

Alas, I thought that the VS2010 setup project was good.

Answer 3

From here example for a hello world project:

HelloWorld_Setup.msi

The Windows Installer package for the HelloWorld project. We can change its name to something more conventional by modifying the Output file name property in the setup project's Property Pages dialog.

Setup.exe

The setup bootstrapper file, which reads Setup.ini to determine the required installation tasks. This is the file that is run to start the installation. Setup.exe will check for the required .NET runtime and prompt users to download it if it is not found on the target PC.

You may also see:

Setup.ini

The initialization file used by Setup.exe to perform the required operations. In a simple setup project like this, Visual Studio .NET creates a reference to the MSI file containing the application's Windows Installer package along with a reference to the required .NET Framework runtime. In more complex installations, it may contain other application-specific information.

So Setup.exe runs on machines without .net and ensures they have it. The .msi will also need Windows Installer

Answer 4

the file with .msi extension, it should installs the application in computer.