Enable WiX project in Visual Studio 2013

Question

I have a VS 2012 solution with WiX Installer projects. However, when I open the solution in VS 2013 (Release) the WiX project is incompatible.

Does anyone know where / whether a VS 2013 version (wixtoolset ?) is available being worked on yet? Or is there a way to make the current project compatible in VS 2013?

Answer 1

Update 2013-12-02: WiX Toolset 3.8 is released with official support for Visual Studio 2013 editions. It is available for download from wixtoolset.org.

You can manually enable Visual Studio 2013 compatibility with older versions of WiX:

1. Copy
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX to
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX

2. Modify
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX\extension.vsixmanifest by adding the following:

   <VisualStudio Version="12.0">
       <Edition>Ultimate</Edition>
       <Edition>Premium</Edition> 
       <Edition>Pro</Edition>
       <Edition>Express_All</Edition>
   </VisualStudio>
   

3. Then open VS2013 Native Tools Command Prompt (from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\Shortcuts) and execute:

   devenv /setup

When you open Visual Studio 2013, WiX 3.7 projects will be compatible.