Hi I am trying to figure out a way to make an installer that is customizible. I have this client-side application that I need to distribute and along side it is an XML file that contains, among other things, the settings that direct the client application on which server(s) to connect to. This file will contain the same information for all PCs at a particular site.

I don't want the end user to have to know the server information and enter it in, so what I would like to do is create a generic installer (one without any specific server connection settings) that I could give to all the site administrators. The site administrators could then customize the settings for their own particular site then distribute the customized installer to the PCs at the site.

I have seen installers like this, for example an installer that can be branded with a site license key so that the license key doesn't have to be entered at each PC during/after the install. I think this is similiar to what I am trying to do.

I've tried writing a vbs script that sits along side the MSI file, and when run it will extract the XML file, make the changes as input by the user, then pack the XML back into the MSI, over-writing the original. I can't seem to find any code to extract/update files from an MSI (I can do tables and data and everything except for actual files) so I think maybe this is the wrong way to go about it?

Can someone please explain how to do this? Am I even going about this the right way?

Thanks,
Mike