What is the best way to make a silent installer (or unattended) for a program that was already created and has a msi installer?
At work I'm told to create an installer that is automated and does all the interaction with the user automatically so that the user essentially just hits one button and it runs through the msi installer of the program that was already developed. Also I have to make it replace a couple files in the directory.
Is it possible to make a installer automate another installer?
Can it be done using WIX in visual studios or NSIS?
Do I need to be able to pull the already developed installer into Visual Studios? If so how?
Bonus- I would like to be able to design the UI so I can place the company logo on it.
I'm a beginner in this field and learn best from walkthrough's or tutorials.
1) Yes - a bootstrapper is what you are looking for. Burn.exe comes with WiX, more information here
2) Yes to using WiX I know nothing about NSIS.
3) If you have nothing you need to change in the MSI then you could just use WiX to create the bootstrapper that would install your existing MSI.
Bonus) WiX lets you fully edit the install dialogs including logos, licenses, etc. More information here.
Extra thoughts: silent installation is part of MSI; your current installer can be installed silently by executing
in a command prompt, the command prompt may need admin privileges.
If you need to make changes to the existing msi look at using Dark.exe again a component of WiX that will decompose your existing MSI file into .wxs files. This post may also prove informative on moving to WiX.