Install more than one MSI files based on user selection in WiX

Question

I would like to create a installer (like BootStarper) to achieve following steps using WiX.

• There will be a setup.exe file.

• Upon Runnig this file it has to open a UI and show the list of softwares (MSI) available for installation.

• The software products are grouped into two Group A or Group B.

• Each group may contain Two or more MSI files (Both internal and third party files)

• Allow user to Choose a group and one or more products to be installed.

• Based on the selection, the products should be silently installed on the local system.

Shall I create a WiX project and display given products(MSI) as its features and can start a deffered custom action to install the seleted ones?

How to author my WiX project to choose the groups and then selected features?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

This is not something you can solve either with the stable WiX release, or Windows Installer.

You will need a separate bootstrapper to launch your MSI files. as the WiX bootstrapper, Burn is only in the WiX 3.6 beta release and not yet properly documented I would suggest trying something like dotNetInstaller.

Answer 2

Upgrade to WiX 3.6 (Beta) and take a look at the new "Burn" functionality.

You cannot use a deferred custom action to install another MSI because there is a mutex that enforces one running execute sequence per machine.

There is functionality in MSI 4.5 called multi-package transactions however MSI 4.5 may not be already installed on a 2003/XP/Vista Machine so you'd need setup.exe to boostrap it anyways.

Also "concurrent" installs are deprecated and should not be used to do servicing issues.