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Have been looking for an answer for a week now but still can't find one. Few words about the problem: I'm working on Windows Remote control desktop application similar to TeamViewer and we currently using both WiX and NSIS to create our installers. The problem is that we have an Remote control Agent that can be installed in 4 different ways:

  1. Install as unattended service
  2. Install in On-Demand mode
  3. Install in ReachMode mode ( update/uninstall the agent when the machine is outside of the LAN)
  4. Install as a service via on-demand mode.

Depending on installation options. (eg. "setup.exe /ReachMode") - we have different UI and very different installation configuration.

Also when creating installer we add a payload to the end of .exe file and than when installing we look for a payload, read the value and make our decision on type of installation

Currently Agents installation implemented in NSIS and main program installation implemented in WiX. My task is to Replace NSIS with a different installer (like WiX or similar)

My Question is: What installer can accomplish these types of customization? Any help/recommendation would be helpful at this point. (Also agent would be installed on WinXP, Vista,Win7, 8 and 10)

Sergii P
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    Somewhat unclear what all these modes mean. Could you elaborate a bit? Remember that you can install as both a service and as an interactive application at the same time and switch between? (two different folders). The service can be started on demand for example, and potentially with different settings. [Quick MSI Tools list](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50225031/windows-service-not-shown-in-add-remove-programs-under-control-panel/50229840#50229840). – Stein Åsmul Sep 19 '19 at 22:48
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    If you are not using NSIS, why add the NSIS tag in the first place? – Anders Sep 20 '19 at 00:33
  • @SteinÅsmul thank you for your time and thank you for the link! Modes are just the way the program is installed. eg. unattended service mode installs program and puts it into services. On-Demand mode copies files into temp folder, runs the program and than deletes the files when program is closed.(similar to Teamviewer's on-demand agent installer that runs, gives you 6 digit number to insert in your Remote control console that connects to the agent, and then agent removes itself after being closed). Currently i'm looking into WiX Sharp because WiX by itself is quite limited – Sergii P Sep 20 '19 at 14:16
  • @Anders yes, agree. removed the tag, my bad – Sergii P Sep 20 '19 at 14:16
  • @SteinÅsmul modes here are just options that you can pass as an argument to your .exe file ( like setup.exe /quite but in our case it's. setup.exe /service or /ReachMode. On-Demand installation mode starts a bit differently - when user downloading our agent installation, we add a payload (via php script) to the end of .exe file and when user run the installer we look for a payload, read the value of the payload and then decide whether we want to install it on-demand mode or as a service. – Sergii P Sep 20 '19 at 15:06
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    Have you investigated more modern approaches for the on-demand stuff such as [MSIX via the Windows Store](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51591399/what-is-the-best-practice-to-auto-upgrade-msi-based-application) - [MSIX tutorial](https://www.advancedinstaller.com/msix-introduction.html)? Or other repositories such as iTunes or Valve or whatever is out there - I don't know that much about it. For modes I would really create separate setups for each mode OR install all in one setup and just active one approach via a public property. I guess this is what you do already of sorts. – Stein Åsmul Sep 20 '19 at 15:15
  • @SteinÅsmul Thank you for your help! I was reading about MSIX and it sounds intresting. It does mention the support of Win7 but I doesn't say anything about WinXP. But I will look into that. I could care less about the support of WinXP but sadly it's one of the requirements as well as all these modes should be in one installer. I've been reading a lot of your posts and replies and it's very helpful, thank you for that! – Sergii P Sep 20 '19 at 17:53

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