1 reply to this topic

[chawbs]

Hi

I have taken on a project that creates some 20 odd MSI files and using a post build step for the installer creates CustomAction..23 & 39 queries allong with InstallExecuteSequence entries. My problem is that installing this takes a very long time because of the 100,000 odd files spread across the MSI files and upgrading is going to be a nightmare.

Bacause of the inherent problems with the nested installs it will not allow me to upgrade just 2 or 3 of the 20 odd MSI files; instead the system wants me to uninstall and reinstall the whole lot... This is where the problem arises. Most customers have this installed on laptops because they require the portability due to the nature of the project. A typical uninstall & reinstall will take upwards of 6 hours because of the amount of files - about 100,000.

Currently the whole build and build of setup is done in Visual Studio 2005. Visual studio install kits are a bit of a nightmare for this project because it is for both PCs and PDAs and has a multitude of supporting DLLs - content management and excludes take up far too much time in the build process.

I have started looking at Wix where I would be in control of the whole thing through XML and like the simplicity of that but that requires a whole lot of work up front to get things right and would exclude me from an upgrade from the original to the new setup.

Recognising that the original coders did not think of these things to start with, what would be your suggestion(s) for:
a. A smaller upgrade than re-installing
b. A product that would allow for better installation control in the future.

I have read that WI 4.5 allows for better transaction control but have not found anything about how to build a multiple MSI install kit using that yet... Would I need to upgrade to a later version of Visual Studio to get things working or is it still going to me manual hard labour :-)

Thanks in advance
Chawbs

[VBScab]