Jul 30 2009 July 30, 2009 July 31, 2009 NoComment by christian

Creating Microsoft Windows Installer Package MSI using Windows Installer XML (WIX)

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The Windows Installer XML (WiX) is a toolset that builds Windows installation packages from XML source code. It is hosted under sourceforge.net (http://wix.sourceforge.net/).

Since it is a toolset, the solution typically consists of a few console applications.

  • candle.exe – is a compiler
  • light.exe – is a linker
  • dark.exe – is a MSI decompiler

To get started creating a Windows Installer Package (MSI) i recommend to use another freeware tool called WiXEdit. This piece of Software is also hosted on sourceforge.net (http://wixedit.sourceforge.net/).

This is a sample for creating a registry key: