Bootstrapper handling Multi-Instances msi

Question

I am currently developping an msi installer, using wix toolset 3.8.

This installer has to be "multi-instances", which is possible through the <InstanceTransform> instruction in wix. (thanks to Yan Sklyarenko and his blog entry regarding multi-instances msi

Now, I am able to make a multiple instances msi, and I know the cmdlines to install/update/remove a specific instance of my product.

However, The "InstanceTransforms" trick doesn't work with the wix bootstrapper (burn), and I need one to install my product easily (i'm not going to ask the user to type some cmdlines and find the right productcode ...)

Now, I am looking for a bootstrapper that would be able to :

• Detect the instances that are already installed on the computer and list them, so that the user can update or remove a specific instance
• Install a new instance if the user wants to, and select an available instance id
• Install some prerequisites (.net framework, visual c++ redistributables,...)

I've been told about dotnetinstaller, which seems to be ok as regards prerequisites, but i've seen nothing about the multi-instances detection... is there a way to do it with dotnetinstaller ? If not, does anybody knows another tool that could do the trick ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Advanced Installer is a tool that can do this, but you need a license for the Professional edition at least. You can use it to manage:

• multiples instances
• prerequisites installations
• many other features

You can try all of the above using the 30 days trial available for download on the website. (disclaimer: I work in the team building it)