Problem with installer made in VS 2003.NET

[Lars Netzel]

Hi, I have made an applicaiton and also a setup project in Visual Studio
that gives me these three files in a folder.

Seup.ini
Setup.msi
Setup.exe

If i run the setup.exe and install the program the program installes fine
and opens fine from shortcuts on desktop that is created during the
installation

BUT... if i also remove the installation file form the computer (since I
feel they are not needed anymore after it's installed) and then try to open
the program from the shortcut.. it complains about that it cannot find the
MSI file...

Why would my program need to have the MSI file accessible still after it is
installed and how can I prevent this?

Best Regards/
Lars Netzel

 

[Ken Tucker [MVP]]

Hi,

Programs that use an msi for installation are self repairing. When
you start your application the msi checks real quick to see if all the files
are still there. If they are not it will reinstall them. Use xcopy
deployment to avoid this behavior.

Ken

 

[Lars Netzel]

What about using other packaging software like, Nullsoft, se or
InstallShield ... those wouldn't need the original install file left on the
drive right?

/Las

 

[agentix]

Lars, Visual Studio installer has very large overhead and produces
relatively big setup files.

Try Agentix Installer - http://www.aginstaller.com
It creates single-exe setups with extremely low (50Kb only) overhead,
has multilingual interface and is easy to use.

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Agentix,

Lars, Visual Studio installer has very large overhead and produces
relatively big setup files.

I assume you are talking about Visual Studio 6. Otherwise I am interested
what you call Big.

Cor

 

[algous]

I assume you are talking about Visual Studio 6. Otherwise I am interested
what you call Big.

Does VS 2003.NET make setups with an overhead of the same small size
like Agentix Installer?
For ex. if I have my application 50Kb in size, what will be overall
size of a setup file? With Agentix Installer I will have my setup no
more than 100Kb.