Custom Actions

Aaron Feng — Tue, 22 May 2007 22:02:04 -0400

I have recently put my installer hat on again. At work, we use Windows Installer XML(Wix) to create our MSIs. I have been away from Wix since I came up with a way to automate the MSI generation on each build.

In order to customize and increase installation experiences, custom actions are often required. Custom actions in the MSI world allow you to inject custom behaviors during installation via VBScript, JScript or C++.

It is crucial to understand custom action fully before starting to build them. Steven Bone wrote a great three part tutorial on this topic a while back.

Custom Action Tutorial Part I – Custom Action Types and Sequences
Custom Action Tutorial Part II – Creating the Project
Custom Action Tutorial Part III – What we did in Part II

I really like this tutorial since there is so little material on this topic. Especially since creating custom actions is not a trivial task. If you do not believe me, give it a read ;)

Aaron Feng: Custom Actions

Custom Actions