Install .NET Framework as prerequisites but not as a part of bundle

Question

We have installer for our application and that installer we build using Wix. We decided to add .net framework installer. Today everybody suggests to use Wix bundle to install .net framework. So we made our bundle. And msi file doesn't want to run until it is run under Administrator. Also there are quite a lot of options (sometimes contradictory) for packages and bundle. And yet that bundle is not we expected to see. Also I saw lot of other installers that install prerequisites as part of themselves. Here is a example of such installer with screenshot.

So my question is can I somehow build installer with .net framework installation using wix but not using wix bundle?

Answer 1

My 2 cents, just to add to what Bob already answered: remove the whole prerequisite and add a launch condition to your setup telling the user to install the .NET framework via Windows Update instead - if it is missing (which it rarely is anymore).

Much cleaner in my opinion than to bundle a huge runtime with your setup - bloating it, and potentially in an old version without security hotfixes - and the runtime is less and less needed as people move to Windows 10 anyway.

For corporate users it is never necessary to bundle the .NET framework as corporate packagers spend a great deal of time disabling and removing such prerequisites from bundles and installers to follow corporate deployment guidelines. Don't do anything creative is my advice, just state what the runtime requirements really are. In other words exact .NET runtime version, and whatever other runtime you include as merge modules, etc...

I hope you see this as a relevant answer. I don't want to dismiss the benefit of including the runtime / prerequisite (especially for home and small office users), but in the world of corporate deployment they would even thank you for not including it.

Answer 2

No. MSI doesn't support installing one MSI from another.