Visual Studio 2010 - Setup Project: How to compress "setup.exe" and "application.msi" in one file

Question

I have a visual Studio 2010 setup project and I want to compress both output files( setup.exe & application.msi) in one single file, and after launch it gets extracted and run from the "Temp" folder.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Setup.exe is normally used to do special processing before running an installation, like checking for the bitness or language of the OS. If not special processing is being done, it is enough to distribute the MSI file. Windows has an executable for MSIEXEC.EXE that is used to run MSI files.

However, if you do wish to combine the files, you can use the IExpress program - http://www.itscodingtime.com/post/Combine-Setup-MSI-and-EXE-into-a-single-package-with-IExpress.aspx