How to Build WPF project with Setup file (Installer Project)

Firstly create a WPF project say "SampleWpfApplication". Here I'm going to use Visual Studio 2013.

Created a project named SampleWpfApplication

You can add your necessary runtime projects' library dll into your project reference if you want. Here I included a sample runtime project's library into my project.

Create Installer Project

Now its time to add our installer project.



By default in your visual studio you will not see "Visual Studio Installer". If you don't see then you have to download it from visual studio installer project for 2013 and install it.

So next You have to create Setup project.



 Your project is added into your solution.


Modify Installer Project


Go to view File System of the installer project.

Then you'll see 



Add "Program Files Folder"

Add Project Output


 1# Firstly you have to add project output into "Application Folder"



If you have multiple projects into your solution then you have to select your Startup Project (UI Project) from project list.



 Here you'll see your referenced library's dll is included autometically. If you need to include any dll externally then you can add here using "File" option. Below later I'll add "logo.png" file as shortcut icon using "File".

 2# Next you have to create a folder under "Program Files Folder" and name it by your software name. Here I am naming it by "Sample App".



After that you have to add again Project Output here as we did earlier for "Application Folder" section.




 Here no dll file will be added

Create application shortcut


 Now we are going to create Desktop Shortcut  and Program's Shortcut.

Desktop Shortcut


 Right click on the created Project Output file into "Sample App" folder under "Program Files Folder" and you will see create shortcut option there.



Then rename it with your software name.
After that cut that shortcut file and paste it into "User's Desktop"






User's Programs Menu Shortcut


 Follow the same approach to create shortcut for user's programs menu and paste the shortcut file into "User's Programs Menu" folder.








Set Software Information


 Select Setup project and then go to Properties window to set your software information.


Here right side you can see the properties window. Set your necessary information there. 

Here at the bottom you will see version. Suppose you are going to install your software and that computer has already installed a copy of this application. In that case, if your current created installer has version number higher that installed one then while installing current one will automatically replace the previous installed one.

 Another important point is you have to make each folder's "Always create" property "True". Example is given below.





Setting Application Icon for Shortcuts


 Now I'm going to show about including icon for created Shortcut. I am using 48x48 sized .ico image file. 

1# First include the file into "Sample App" of "Program Files Folder".



2# After that go to "User's Desktop" and select the shortcut file and go to its properties window. There you'll find Icon option.


Select browse option





 Icon is set now.

 Do the same procedure for "User's Programs Menu" too.


Installer Build


 Now rebuild the Installer project.



Then you will see 2 files into installer project's debug folder.
 

If you want to rename output msi file name, then right click on the Setup Project and click Properties.




Add .Net as Prerequisite


 If you want to add .Net version as prerequisite for your software, then go to the properties section of the installer project.



If you want to supply your desired .Net version with your installer then select 2nd option.

Press "OK" and build the project. You may see the following error. If not, then you are done.


If you see this error, then go the link showing in error message.


Go to down of that page you will see link named Download Center.  From there download the .Net version.


After download completed go to the following directory
For Visual Studio 2013
 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\Bootstrapper\Packages
For Visual Studio 2012
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages

Then you have to paste your downloaded .Net file into your preferred "DotNetFX" folder. As I am using .Net4.5 so I paste my downloaded "dotNetFx45_Full_x86_x64.exe" file into "DotNetFX45" folder.


After that rebuild your installer project and you will see "DotNetFX45"(in my case file name is that) into your debug folder.


That's it. You built your installer with your prerequisite .Net :)

Inspired by following link

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Build shared library of ffmpeg with x264 to use in visual studio win32 project

After few painful failure attempts at last i was able to build shared library which can be used in visual studio win32 project. Here is the process which i have gone through. Hope this will be helpful. I don't want any body to face the same failure moments.. Environment settings Download msys2 32 bit form this link http://msys2.github.io and install it.(in my case installed " msys2-i686-20160205.exe " in directory is "c:\msys32" ). Run it and run below commands update-core ( Update the system packages with) close MSYS2, run it again and run below commands pacman -Sy pacman -Su  (sometimes this command creates error then you have uninstall msys2 and install again. In that case you can ignore this command) pacman -S pkg-config make diffutils  go to C:\msys32\usr\bin and rename "link.exe" to "link_backup.exe". Because we will not use this link. we will use visual studio link. Download yasm win32 ".exe&quo
Read more

Comma-separated string to tabular format

  Comma-separated string to tabular data Sometimes we need to extract individual data from the comma-separated strings. We can use the following query to do that in oracle. SELECT REGEXP_SUBSTR('my comma separated string', '[^,]', 1, LEVEL) TYPE, LEVEL FROM DUAL CONNECT BY LEVEL <= REGEXP_COUNT('my  comma separated string','[^,]') ;
Read more