WIX run vcredist_x64.exe on install

Question

I have an application compiled in VS 2015 and requires the VC++ Redistributable package in order to run properly. Prior to this latest build, we were using an older version

Answer 1

I think the correct approach to take when having prerequisites that have their own installers is to create a WiX bootstrapper bundle, which runs through each installer in turn. This handles things like rollbacks on install failures, etc, which running custom actions from within an installer does not.

A barebones sample can be seen here, you add <MsiPackage> and <ExePackage> in the Chain element in the order you need them to install.

Answer 2

I was facing a similar problem (fully described in this closed question, which actually redirected me here). I was able to solved it inspired by this entry about running the application after setup.

The key part is basically to add a final step to the UI that launches the vcredist installer:

<UI Id="UI_Main">
  <!-- ...... -->
  <Publish Dialog="ExitDialog"
           Control="Finish"
           Event="DoAction"
           Value="InstallVCRedistributable">1</Publish>
</UI>

Regarding the custom action:

<CustomAction Id="InstallVCRedistributable"
              FileKey="VCREDISEXE"
              ExeCommand="/install /passive /norestart"
              Impersonate="yes"
              Return="asyncNoWait" />

Answer 3

I found this question and tried it myself, being in the same situation. I found the installer error you're running into was/is Error 1618: "Another installation is already in progress." It seems that running the vc_redist installer inside your own installer simply won't work.

Your other options seem to be creating a bootstrapper as Patrick Allwood suggests above, or simply asking users to install the vc_redist package on their own before running your own installer. You can detect if the Universal C Runtime is already present by checking for ucrtbase.dll in C:\Windows\System32:

<Property Id="UCRTINSTALLED">
  <DirectorySearch Id="UCRTSystemSearch" Path="[WindowsFolder]System32" Depth="0">
    <FileSearch Id="UCRTFileSearch" Name="ucrtbase.dll" MinVersion="10.0.10240.16389" />
  </DirectorySearch>
</Property>

If you only have a 32-bit installer, you can also use the [SystemFolder] property directly.

EDIT: As Kevin Smyth mentioned, the version of ucrtbase.dll is giving weird issues - reporting version 2.X to some tools, and version 10.Y to other tools. You can remove the MinVersion property if you just want to check for the existence of ucrtbase.dll.