Recommendations for getting started with WiX? [closed]

Question

I found a WiX Tutorial, but it's really long-winded and seems like more than I wanted. What's the best way to get started quickly?

My end goal is nothing really complicated: an installer that installs an ISAPI filter.

Answer 1

I used that same tutorial a couple years ago when I needed to learn WiX. MSI (and therefore WiX) are incredibly complex, you'll need to invest some time to get it right.

If you have Visual Studio, I highly recommend getting Votive (which, I think, comes bundled in WiX v3 now). It'll set up VS to recognize the WiX XML schema and make hand-editing XML files much easier.

Answer 2

When you install the WIX 3.0 toolset, it comes with a manual. It is installed to C:\Program Files\Windows Installer XML v3\doc\wix.chm and is linked in the start menu.

This is not just a dry reference manual. It contains a lot of introductory material such as the "Authoring your first .wxs file" and "How To: Add a File To Your Installer".

The manual also links to the tutorial you mention and some audio-visual material in the "Getting Started Learning Wix" topic.

The wix3 manual is also available online here.

Answer 3

That tutorial is actually probably the best that's out there right now - WiX and Windows Installer technology is a bit "baroque" and involved....

If you want to whip up just a quick'n'easy installer, maybe this will be good enough for you?

Wix# (WixSharp) - managed interface for WiX

It's like writing C# - and it gets compiled to WiX - quite nifty.

It can't do everything - but maybe for your simple install, it's good enough - or at least it could give you a skeleton to build upon.

Marc

Answer 4

The tutorial is probably the simplest way to learn how to author an installer using WiX, but there are samples on the wixwiki site that you may be able to adapt without needing to learn everything involved in writing an installer from nothing.

Answer 5

There is a basic introduction here on the CodeProject. The second part, which includes getting started with the GUI and features, is here.

I found these to be a great place to start before delving into the details in the (much more complete) tutorial you mentioned.

Answer 6

WiX and Windows Installer will definitely be more than you expect if you come from a Visual Studio setup project background, because it offers perhaps 20% of the functionality of Windows Installer (and WiX) and uses functions like Service Installer classes which are definitely not necessary in Windows Installer.

This is useful too - the MSI to WiX series of blogs, start here:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/alexshev/archive/2008/01/25/from-msi-to-wix-part-1.aspx