How do I get the MSVC runtime libraries location in Wix v4?

Question

In my Wix installer I integrate MSVC redistributable runtime libraries instead of the full VC Redist packages because of smaller file size. On my machine these files are located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Redist\MSVC\14.38.33130\x86\Microsoft.VC143.CRT. Now I would like to get that path from a variable in Wix because the path will be different depending on Visual Studio edition, MSVC version, etc.

MSBuild offers a macro $(VC_CppRuntimeFilesPath_x86) which resolves to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Redist\MSVC\14.38.33130\x86 from where I could easily build the correct path.

I tried the syntax from these instructions to capture the MSBuild macro into a Wix preprocessor variable.

<!-- Setup.wixproj -->
<Project Sdk="WixToolset.Sdk/4.0.3">
  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|x86' ">
    <DefineConstants>Debug</DefineConstants>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Label="Globals">
    <DefineConstants>MsvcCrtX86=$(VC_CppRuntimeFilesPath_x86);MsvcCrtX64=$(VC_CppRuntimeFilesPath_x64);</DefineConstants>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="WixToolset.UI.wixext" Version="4.0.3" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

<!-- Product.wxs -->
<Wix xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs" xmlns:ui="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs/ui">
  ...
  <Fragment>
    <ComponentGroup>
      <Component Id="VCRT32" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER" Bitness="always32">
        <File Source="$(var.MsvcCrtX86)\concrt140.dll" />
        <File Source="$(var.MsvcCrtX86)\msvcp140.dll" />
        <File Source="$(var.MsvcCrtX86)\msvcp140_1.dll" />
        <File Source="$(var.MsvcCrtX86)\msvcp140_2.dll" />
        <File Source="$(var.MsvcCrtX86)\msvcp140_atomic_wait.dll" />
        <File Source="$(var.MsvcCrtX86)\msvcp140_codecvt_ids.dll" />
        <File Source="$(var.MsvcCrtX86)\vccorlib140.dll" />
        <File Source="$(var.MsvcCrtX86)\vcruntime140.dll" />
      </Component>
    </ComponentGroup>
  </Fragment>
</Wix>

Unfortunately, the MsvcCrtX86 and MsvcCrtX64 variables in Wix's preprocessor stay empty. My doubt is that MSBuild only populates $(VC_CppRuntimeFilesPath_x86) and similar macros for .vcxproj projects and not for SDK style projects.

Answer 1

You can check and execute a VC redist like below

Note the condition

VersionNT64 AND (NOT VC2015x64Installed OR VC2015x64BuildNumber < "31938"

<ExePackage Id="VC2015Redist"
      SourceFile="$(var.SolutionDir)build\vc2015redist-extracted\VC2015redist-x64.exe"
      Vital="yes"
      Permanent="yes"
      Compressed="yes"
      Cache="no"
      SuppressSignatureVerification="yes"
      InstallCondition="VersionNT64 AND (NOT VC2015x64Installed OR VC2015x64BuildNumber &lt; &quot;31938&quot;)"
      InstallCommand = "/install /quiet /norestart"
      >