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I am currently developping an msi installer, using wix toolset 3.8.

This installer has to be "multi-instances", which is possible through the <InstanceTransform> instruction in wix. (thanks to Yan Sklyarenko and his blog entry regarding multi-instances msi

Now, I am able to make a multiple instances msi, and I know the cmdlines to install/update/remove a specific instance of my product.

However, The "InstanceTransforms" trick doesn't work with the wix bootstrapper (burn), and I need one to install my product easily (i'm not going to ask the user to type some cmdlines and find the right productcode ...)

Now, I am looking for a bootstrapper that would be able to :

  • Detect the instances that are already installed on the computer and list them, so that the user can update or remove a specific instance
  • Install a new instance if the user wants to, and select an available instance id
  • Install some prerequisites (.net framework, visual c++ redistributables,...)

I've been told about dotnetinstaller, which seems to be ok as regards prerequisites, but i've seen nothing about the multi-instances detection... is there a way to do it with dotnetinstaller ? If not, does anybody knows another tool that could do the trick ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Community
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Gruntzy
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1 Answers1

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Advanced Installer is a tool that can do this, but you need a license for the Professional edition at least. You can use it to manage:

You can try all of the above using the 30 days trial available for download on the website. (disclaimer: I work in the team building it)

Bogdan Mitrache
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  • Hi, thanks for your answer, but I'm currently looking for a "simpler" tool, as I only need a bootstrapper, since I am making the msi with wix, and I am not sure my company will be ok to spend money on a Pro License for Advanced Installer... I think I will have a look on the trial version anyway – Gruntzy May 28 '14 at 09:33
  • A tool more easy to easy you will not find, for building MSIs. It can also build the MSI for you, just import the Wix project, so you don't start from scratch. As an argument for management, the time you save on building scripts in Wix probably costs much more than a Pro license – Bogdan Mitrache May 28 '14 at 10:40