This may be day dreaming since I am not sure what an msi really consists of, but from what I can tell is that it's a database. We have a requirement where our product is going to be co-branded, and there are properties in the windows installer that would need to be set with specific information that identifies xyz-company rather than our company, such as

ARPHELPTELEPHONE    1800-XYZ-COMPANY, support@xyz-company.com

Do you think it's possible to write an application to bundle with our product that would allow other companies to set their own customer information (something that would slightly redefine ourcomapnyproduct.msi)? Then when they resell to their clients, they'll get all the tech support calls.

Maybe LLBLGen could generate from the msi schema? Wishful thinking?

Other wise, anyone have any links to do something like this?

Thanks!

Moved to General Chat

I think you can already do this with Orca. Bascially, edit the .msi and make changes to it. I know install shield also lets you edit .msi files.

BOb

Thanks! I am slowly getting the Windows Installer figured out... apparently the .msi database is very complex and is the core of the execution of the entire install process.

You could create one with the deployment project, then decompile it with the WiX tools (they're on sourceforge) and start from there.

You could also use an alternative installer, like innosetup or NSIS. We'll move to NSIS with our upcoming upgrade.

Ha... thx... that is actually what we did, we moved to innosetup.

Isz wrote:

Ha... thx... that is actually what we did, we moved to innosetup.

IMO Innosetup is way easier to use compared to NSIS, and a good choice (it doesn't produce msi files though).