How to make an MSI that simply wraps an EXE file

Joshua, I understand your frustration very well. MSI is quirky to say the least - a completely new way to think of deployment. Still, applied correctly MSI offers the best possible deployment, especially for corporate customers.

What operations does your installer EXE perform? Is it largely file copy, some COM registration and some registry writes, or does it run complex installation logic, setting up databases etc...? The reason I ask is because it probably would be very quick to create a well functioning WIX MSI for you so you can abandon the EXE approach.

It is indeed possible to run an EXE from inside an MSI, but it requires proper sequencing, and it is guaranteed to cause you more blues than a simple MSI. If the app is small, and not doing anything crazy during installation, I would be happy to provide you with a basic WIX conversion.

• A summary of deployment tools and their strengths and weaknesses
• Advantages of using MSI files

Well, there is the free way and the $$$ way. I cannot document everything here, but this should get you started.

On a side note, yes, Windows Installer is a maddening technology. There are many times where I think a task will be straightforward, but it actually becomes complicated. You definitely have to immerse yourself to understand it.

In any case, here goes:

Free: WiX (here)

This is a free tool to generate MSI files from a set of XML configuration files. I'll leave you to find tutorials online, but here is the crux:

You can compress your EXE into the installer by using the following tag in the WXS file:

<Binary Id="MYEXE" src="<path to my exe?"/>

Then you can create a custom action which launches your EXE file:

<CustomAction Id="EXECA_CALLMYEXE" Return="check" Execute="deferred" BinaryKey="MYEXE"
      ExeCommand="my command line"/>

Then you insert your custom action into the InstallExecuteSequence in the appropriate spot (I almost always run mine somewhere between InstallInitialize and InstallFinalize)

<InstallExecuteSequence>
   <Custom Action="EXECA_CALLMYEXE" After="InstallInitialize"><![CDATA[Not REMOVE]]></Custom>

$$$: Get InstallShield (HERE)

First create a "Basic MSI" project and make sure you say you want no setup.exe generated. You set this in the Release settings.

Then you essentially do the same thing as with WiX, but you have a UI for it.

• You can specify your helper EXE file by using the Direct Editor and putting your EXE file in the 'Binary' table
• You can create a custom action to launch that EXE file from the "Custom Actions" Node in the tree on the left
• You can insert the custom action by selecting "Install Sequences" and putting it in the InstallExecuteSequence somewhere between InstallInitialize and InstallFinalize as I said before.

Sorry, I could not be more detailed, but this should be a good start.

I think the easiest way to create a .MSI file is to use WiX.

Lesson 1 from the WiX tutorial is all you need to create a simple install.