Create MSI or setup project with Visual Studio 2012

Kris Nobels picture Kris Nobels · Sep 11, 2012 · Viewed 259.5k times · Source

I create a small application and I would like to create one MSI file.

In Visual Studio 2010 you have this project type under:

Other Project Types -> Setup and Deployment -> Visual studio Installer -> Setup Project

But the only thing you got in Visual Studio 2012 is "Enable InstallShield Limited Edition".

You can change the .NET Framework, but nothing changes.

Why is it not there any more? And how can I get it back? Is there a new way to do this?

Answer

Christopher Painter picture Christopher Painter · Sep 12, 2012

Please see:

Visual Studio setup projects (vdproj) will not ship with future versions of VS

Windows Installer Deployment

It was announced 1 1/2 years ago that the project types were being killed. Alternatives are:

  1. Use A VS2008/2010 Solution to build your installer
  2. Switch to another tool such as InstallShield or Windows Installer XML