visual studio .net setup: I am deploying a project that uses SQLExpress (2005) -- I've successfully
configured the pre-requisite package to properly install my instance. What
I'd like to do is include the sqlexpr32.exe file with my deployment package
as first time installers will never have met the prerequisite (it's
dependent on a specific instance). This will make for a larger initial
download for the user, but will make for a cleaner install as it won't go
get the file from the internet at install time.

It won't work to run it as a custom action from your setup because you can't
run two simultaneous MSI installs. That's why the bootstrapper seup.exe
loads prerequisites before starting the MSI setup. Why not just use a zip
program to package setup.exe and your MSI and it's prerequisites into one
file and have it launch setup.exe when unzipped?
--
Phil Wilson
[Microsoft MVP-Windows Installer]
[quoted text, click to view]

Hello Matt,

If what you need to do is make the SQL Express prerequisites be put
together with your setup program files, you can use the "specify the
install location for prerequisites" option on the "Rrerequisites" dialog.
This option can help you determine how your prerequisites package will be
downloaded at runtime. You can choose to download from internet (through
vendor's site) or download from local(together with the install package).

You can also see the "Download prerequisites from the same location as my
application" in the following MSDN reference about the Prerequisites dialog:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/7tx0bw8y(VS.80).aspx

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Steven Cheng

Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead



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