Well,

I've got my project, I've got my pre-requisites...what next?

I had to use the VSTO thing for 2005 to create the Office PIA prerequisite for 2003, since the one that came with VS2008 was for 2007, and we don't use 2007 here at my work. So, i've got it set up to work just fine, but, I can't seem to incorporate the .net framework and office pia to "download" from a network location. I have the .net 3.51 redist package on our File Server, as well as the Office 2003 PIA is on the file server. Now I want the setup application for my applications to always look at \\Server\Shared\IT\Public\AppInstalls for the .net install, the Office 2003 pia install, and perhaps any other future package that may become a prerequiste. Currently I keep getting this error:

ERROR: The install location for prerequisites has not been set to 'component vendor's web site' and the file 'DotNetFX35SP1\dotNetMSP\x64\NetFX3.0-KB948610-v6001-x64.msu' in item '.NET Framework 3.5 SP1' can not be located on disk. See Help for more information.

that's only one of them, for there are quite a few for .net 3.51 and only one for office 2003, but i keep getting that "component vendor's web site' error. I just want it to look to our network for the redist instead of trying to download it from MS all the time, and I don't want to have the office pia 5mb file carted along with every install package i create. For external distributions I am aware this will not work and given the eula i have to repackage certain things with the install, but none of my work is for distribution, this is all internal company work, so there is no point to having everyone have to redownload this that and the other thing.

Thanks

Jaeden "Sifo Dyas" al'Raec Ruiner

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"Never Trust a computer. Your brain is smarter than any micro-chip."

Hi JaedenRuiner,

From your description, I think you want to let the install program download the prerequisites from a share folder in your local network, but I cannot know what way you used to deploy your software. Could you please provide me with more information about how you deployed your software? This will help me to get the key problem.

From my experience, I think you used ClickOnce to deploy. You can modify the publish setting of your project to meet your needs. These are the steps:

1. Right click the project to open the Property Pages dialog box.

2. In the dialog box, select the Publish page.

3. Click the Prerequisites button to open the Prerequisites dialog.

4. On the dialog, select Download prerequisites from the following location and enter your file-share location.

5. Click OK to continue.

You can get more information from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/7eh4aaa5(VS.80).aspx.

If you still meet the error: The install location for prerequisites has not been set to 'component vendor's web site' and the file 'DotNetFX35SP1\dotNetMSP\x64\NetFX3.0-KB948610-v6001-x64.msu' in item '.NET Framework 3.5 SP1', please check the file share folder to make sure all the prerequisites are included. You can also provide me with more information about how to reproduce the error, so that I can test and try to figure out the cause of the problem.

Let me know if this helps.
Aland Li

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Please mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark if they don't. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Actually, no. I don't really care for ClickOnce deployment. My applications I prefer to always be installed locally in the Program Files as an Actual application, not in some weird .Net location that the ClickOnce affects.

Originally, I was trying to use VisualStudio as my setup project generator. However, it does a few things that are annoying. Like when creating Start Menu/Desktop short-cuts they are "normal" short cuts, they are something different. I point them to the "installed" application files that I want the short cuts to point to, but once created after the install, the short-cuts have readonly "Target" properties, and their Icons are all wonky, so I ended up using Advanced Install. If there is a way to devise a truly robust installation program that acts like a Standard MSI out visual studio I would definitely prefer it, but currently it seems that after purchasing VisualStudio i still must Purchase yet another application to handle my windows installation (which i think is a crock). The Visual Studio project didn't even have an option to create a short cut for an "Uninstall" forcing the user to have to use the Add/Remove Programs.

My installations normally do the following:

Add a simple Registry Setting or Two
Install Required Assemblies into GAC if not present
Install Application and support files to the Program Files\Manufacturer\Program directory
Create Start Menu\Manufacturer\Program menu folder with Short Cuts,
Occasionaly Custom Action After install

My intallations are not all too complex, but for most "Freeware" installers, they don't provide for custom actions or GAC installs, and to get the more advanced properties of installations I must purchase additional software. One would think Visual Studio 2008 Professional, being written by microsoft, and the MSI microsoft installer being a standard created by microsoft, that the best and most robust install builder should be also made by microsoft...but it isn't.

If i can get the power an advaced capabilities like those found in say InstallShield, or Advanced Installer, I'll go back to VS to create my builds and then maybe it will work out. but until then I have to make do with what I got.

As for the Installing pre-requisites I have two: Office 2003 PIAs (or O2003PIA.MSI) and the Dot Net 3.51 install. i've got the dotnetfx351.exe redist package, which I have extracted to the share location as well as the O2003PIA.msi. However, the bootstrapper packages in the SDK folder which are used for the prerequisites when building Setups look to their own folder for the install when the package is set not to go to the vendor's website. Even though I told the system to download packages from "X" location, it still wanted a copy of the extracted installs to be placed in the bootstrapper\packages folder for each specific package. Upon building the final MSI, using VS, it would copy the entire install folder into the Debug or Release folder along with the MSI so my end structure looked like this:

Bin\Debug
MyProgramSetup.msi
.\DotNetFX35SP1\.
.\Office2003PIA\.

where in those two extra directories the o2003pia.msi file and the entire extracted contents (all 237MB) of the Dot net install were copied. So I have no idea if the system would even chack to download from the share location or not.

*shrug*

I'll keep pluggin' away though and eventually I'll figure out what I need to do what I want.
THanks
Jaeden "Sifo Dyas" al'Raec Ruiner

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"Never Trust a computer. Your brain is smarter than any micro-chip."