Bootstrapper Projects

There is also a bootstrapper project type in MSIStudio. This is intended to be used to control the installation of .msi files that have been already built. All of the regular bootstrapper features are available such as visual enhancements and the ability to preinstall the .NET Framework and newer versions of Windows Installer.

Multiple .msi files can be specified but only one will be installed. This is controlled using conditions. The condition syntax follows that of the Windows Installer documentation. After evaulating the conditions of the embedded msi packages, a dialog box is displayed and the user can select which package to install. Note that empty conditions are evaluated to true.

This feature can be used when distributing a suite of separate applications. Another example where this functionality would be of great use is when distributing a single package that can contain both 32-bit and 64-bit msi packages. See the tutorial Create a single setup to target both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.