Porting Custom Install Actions to Wix
c#, visual-studio-2010, wix, wix3.7
Solution
The `Installer` class based custom actions do not integrate well with the Windows Installer. The Visual Studio Setup Projects created a workaround to shoehorn them into an .MSI file but that was never the ideal situation. The WiX toolset provides true support for managed custom actions using the `DTF` framework.
I highly encourage you to take a look at the `DTF Documentation` shortcut provided with the WiX toolset. It has decent walkthroughs and I expect you'll be able to port your code pretty easily plus you'll be able to integrate far more with the Windows Installer.
Problem
I currently have a Visual Studio Deployment project for creating an MSI for my applicaiton, and I'm porting over to a WiX installer. The VS Installer used a library with Custom Install Actions that inherited from System.Configuration.Install.Installer, e.g.: ``` [RunInstaller(true)] public partial class MyCustomInstaller: Installer { } ``` How do these equate to Wix actions? I figure that in general, WiX allows you to run custom actions after an install. Are these just executables? In my case, the custom Install Actions I have are classes in a DLL, not an EXE. How can I execute these from my WiX configuration?