Packing multiple .exe in single .msi package

Question

I am trying to put multiple .exe in single .msi package and It should be installed one by one.

lets say I have a.exe, b.exe and c.exe

On clicking on .msi package a.exe should be installed and the .msi should wait for it after successfully installation of a.exe it should trigger b.exe. On successful installation of b.exe , c.exe should be triggered for installation.

The .exe files (a.exe , b.exe and c.exe) are standard installables (for e.g.CodeSourcery, flash tools, IAR workbench etc).

Please let me know how to achieve this and what tools do I need.

Regards Horaira

Answer 1

I think," Advanced Installer tool" is the bestfor such a case,I have tried packaging three different exe in one MSI package. It first bundles them up and then run the installation for them. Visual basic felt pretty difficult as compared to Advanced Installer.

Answer 2

Advanced Installer has some dedicated support for this. But it's a commercial tool, so a license is required.

As a free solution, you can try using WiX to create the MSI. You can then launch the EXE packages using custom actions.

Answer 3

Those three EXE files may likely be MSI files inside EXE files. And running two MSIs simultaneously is problematic.

What you need is a bootstrapper EXE to launch each of the installers in sequence (in the same way that you would use a bootstrapper to install .NET before launching your own MSI install)

Examples:

• dotNetInstaller - http://dblock.github.com/dotnetinstaller/
• Burn (part of WiX) - http://wixtoolset.org/