InstallShield Basic MSI InstallDIR - installshield

I am trying to give my users the ability to select the drive they want to load our software to. Instead of just giving them the InstallChangeFolder dialog I am attempting to just list the drives that are available to load on. I have done this in an InstallScript project before but now we are trying to move to MSI. Basically the flow will be they select the drive and then we append our root path to that drive. Does anyone know of any good tutorials that would explain how to create a custom dialog for changing the installdir and wiring up in all of the custom actions and sequences. If it matters I am using InstallShield 2013 and a Basic MSI Project

Why do you want to hardcode your installation path? That seems like enforcing bad design decisions on your customers.
The default method of allowing the user to pick the installation path is the standard method, for a good reason.

I agree hard coding the path is a bad design, however in order to achieve what you want just create new custom action by going through custom action wizard selecting installscript file, copy your code of install script and add place newly created custom action in the correct sequence.

Related

Overide Defaultappassociations.xml and let user select the application

I am working on Win 10 upgrade activity. As you know we can select application for file extension. So, those file will open on that app. e.g. html files only open in Chrome when user double click on that.
We can create XML file (DefaultAppAssociations.xml) and place it in C:\windows\system32
Now, I got the request to make one application default but let user decide if they want any other app. Is there any way to handle such things because defaultappassociations.xml will hard code this. Every time machine restart and it will set the same.
This is only possible as part of the operating system deployment or rather for newly created user profiles.
The command (official documentation):
Dism.exe /online /Import-DefaultAppAssociations:<path to exported xml>
However as I said you cannot alter existing profiles that way. Altering existing profiles in any way that is not the force via gpo is afaik not possible anymore because Microsoft does not want to allow it. A pretty stupid decision but at least you can tell whoever made the request that it is by MS design.

Open custom user control in tool window using VS Package

I'm trying to create simple custom command (added in TOOLS menu option) to open the tool bar with custom control in VS 2013 using VS Package project.
I'm following https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb165987.aspx this guide but not sure why it's not working.
When I click on it, it opens tool window but without content under it. I want to show the MyControl.cs or custom control content under it.
I've tried a lot to find it out on Google but no relevent article found for same.
I've notice when I created new VS Package, it created "MyControl.xaml" file which loading it's data properly. I deleted that file and created new user control "MyControl.cs" which is not loading data.
Not sure if it requires VSIX project or VS Package. Is there any other way to do this?
Nothing in vsix development is simple at first. Try using this tutorial. It's from a series you can find here.
For you to show custom tool window content you have to extend the ToolWindowPane class and override the Window property returning your content as a IWin32Window. The tutorial fully explains it, and very well I might add, and the series is excellent even though it targets vs2010.

add custom webpi feed programmatically

Is it possible to add custom feed programmatically to Web Platform Installer? I tried adding the feed manually and found that the feed location is stored in `%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer\web.preferences file. However the file seems somewhat cryptic and I would not like to modify it manually. Is there any API for that?
Update: even if this web.preferences file could be edited it is not the way to go as it is user specific file and I need system wide configuration.
Based on this link,
Sorry, there isn't a way to do that currently (for security reasons,
we don't allow an untrusted feed to be loaded without the user's
consent)
Once the feed is added via the Options dialog, it does persist between
sessions
I think we can't add custom feed without intervene from user. Maybe you can use WebpiCmd.exe
that can be configured programmatically via scripts.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer>WebpiCmd.exe /List /Feeds:http://yourcustomwpifeed.co.id/customFeed.xml
A little late, but maybe it may interest others. You can modify the file %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer\webpi.preferences. Yes, it is a little cryptic, but here's my post about how to do it.
The file webpi.preferences is user-specific. If you want to set settings for all users, all I can think of is to write a bootstrapper application that first modifies webpi.preferences (using the code in the post) and then runs WebPlatformInstaller.exe.

Refresh installation form of InstallShield application File

I created a setup file using InstallShield application.
Now, in one of the Installation Form, I have a checkbox control. By default it is unchecked. But after performing some operation on that form, I wants to check that checkbox control.
I am able to change its property, but the form is not getting refreshed.
Please Help me.
Thanks.
This is a known limitation in Windows Installer internal UI. Either roll an external UI handler ( InstallScript MSI project type for example ) or rethink your UI story to conform to what MSI is capable of doing.

What is the easiest way to add a page to ask for a string in NSIS using MUI?

I'm an NSIS novice.
I'm using the NSIS editor, and the built-in wizard to create a basic installer. I've figured out how to add a second page to ask the user for an alternate folder (install path vs data storage path). I also need to ask them for a URL (a SOAP/WSDL location), and I'd like to just add in another page similar to the directory page that just asks for a generic string (no browse, etc).
I'm using MUI (not MUI2).
Is there some simple way to do this?
To create a custom page, use nsDialogs (or the older InstallOptions) They are both included in the official installer, go look at some of the examples.

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