WiX: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML

If you’re a developer needing to create installers for Microsoft Windows, then this book is essential. It’s a step-by-step tutorial that teaches you all you need to know about WiX: the professional way to produce a Windows installer package.

Key Features

• Package your software into a single-file, double-click MSI for easy installation
• Read and write to the Windows Registry and create, start, and stop Windows Services during installation
• Write .NET code that performs specific tasks during installation via custom actions
• Learn how the WiX command-line tools work to build and link your project
• Become proficient with to-the-point examples and real-world advice

Book Description

What you will learn

• Install, start, stop, and uninstall Windows Services at the time of setup
• Make your project more modular with Fragments, ComponentRefs, and ComponentGroups
• Learn tips for installing special types of files such as font files and how to optimize copying speed
• Prevent users from installing your software on unsupported operating systems and introduce other pre-requisite checks
• Gain an understanding of the order in which events happen during an install and how to add your own actions to this sequence
• Build a customized user interface that meets the unique requirements of your project
• Understand how WiX builds and links your files into the final MSI package and how to control this process
• Read and write to the Windows Registry with XML
• Build various language-specific installers without duplicating large amounts of code
• Create rules for checking for and removing older versions of your software or to patch existing files

Who this book is for

If you are a developer and want to create installers for software targeting the Windows platform, then this book is for you. You'll be using a lot of XML so that you get accustomed to the basics of writing well-formed documents, using XML namespaces and the dos and don'ts of structuring elements and attributes. You should know your way around Visual Studio, at least enough to compile projects, add project references, and tweak project properties. No prior knowledge of Windows Installer or WiX is assumed.