I want to develop an installer project which will provide me a .msi. I would like to avoid using other tools like InstallShield, InstallBuilder etc. We would like to use custom GUI in this installer. The problem is that I am not quiet certain about how to start the implementation. So, I need some advise about how to start developing the project and what to do study for this.
Please note that, I have already created an installer using visual studio 2010. But the UI of this is not modifiable easily.
I want all of your kind help.
Check out IsWiX. The concept is project templates (scaffolding) and graphical designers for Windows Installer XML. Most of the work is done for you without editing XML. For custom UI, check out these two .wxs fragments:
Uncomment to inject a custom dialog into the install wizard loop -->
<UIRef Id="CustomDlg"/>
...a bunch of XML to define a new dialog with header, body, footer and transition buttons...
We don't have designers for dialogs yet but I'd love a developer to help me write it.
Here's a couple sample videos:
Create and Package a Windows Service using IsWiX
If Native MSI UI isn't fancy enough, you can look into writing a custom bootstrapper application for Wix / Burn using native or managed (WPF) code.