Wix Add Remove Program Details

6 minute read

In this article we create MSI Details for Add/Remove Program details.

Please see below 👇🏻 image of Visual Studio for reference.

add-remove-msi-details

Add [WPF Project]

For this demo, I added a sample WPF Project.

Please see below 👇🏻 image of [sample WPF Project] for reference.

add-wpf-project

In my sample WPF Project, application logo file is placed at below location.

Logo File Location: [Images/logo.ico]

Please see below 👇🏻 image for reference.

application-logo-file

Reference WPF Project

In our [TestApplication.MSI] project, we need to reference our WPF Application.

For this select [Dependencies] node as shown in below 👇🏻 image.

reference-wpf-project

Right Click on [Dependencies] node and select [Add Project Reference] as shown in below 👇🏻 image.

select-project-reference

This will show [Reference Manager] window as shown in below 👇🏻 image.

show-reference-manager-window

Then select [CheckBox] in front of project you want to add as a [Primary Project] as shown in below 👇🏻 image.

select-project-in-reference-manager-window

By this we complete the process of referencing WPF Project into our Wix MSI Project for further use.

Update [Package.en-us.wxl]

In Wix MSI Project we need to add required variables into [Package.en-us.wxl] file.

First open [Package.en-us.wxl] file then add required variables.

Below variables are required.

  • PackageName
  • PackageManufacturer
  • PackageUpgradeCode
  • PackageProductCode

Please see below 👇🏻 image of [Package.en-us.wxl] file for reference.

required-variables

Please see below code sample for example.

<!--
This file contains the declaration of all the localizable strings.
-->
<WixLocalization xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxl" Culture="en-US">

  <String Id="DowngradeError" 
          Value="A newer version of [ProductName] is already installed." />

  <String Id="PackageName" Value="AA Application" />
  <String Id="PackageManufacturer" Value="The CAD Coder" />
  <String Id="PackageUpgradeCode" Value="{58D55889-FFE4-4EA1-93FD-B8BA7F97EF22}" />
  <String Id="PackageProductCode" Value="{9D0FA41D-30B6-4A5B-A3E2-E3FCB697E0C2}" />

</WixLocalization>
  • PackageName: This is Name of MSI Package.
  • PackageManufacturer: This is Name of Package Manufacturer.
  • PackageUpgradeCode: This is Package UpgradeCode. This is very important field. For one MSI package this is always unique and never changes.
  • PackageProductCode: This is Package Product Code. This is also very important. For each MSI Version this always change otherwise while installing MSI will give error of same version already installed.

Update [Package.wxs]

Below image show default content of Package.wxs

package.wxs-file

<Wix xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs">
  <Package Name="TestApplication.MSI" 
           Manufacturer="TODO Manufacturer" 
           Version="1.0.0.0" 
           UpgradeCode="f3873438-14af-4dcb-9ba2-4b474e155f08">
    <MajorUpgrade DowngradeErrorMessage="!(loc.DowngradeError)" />

    <Feature Id="Main">
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="ExampleComponents" />
    </Feature>
  </Package>
</Wix>

Below image show updated content of Package.wxs

updated-package-file

<Wix xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs">

  <?define BuildVersion= 1.0.0.0 ?>
  
  <Package Name="!(loc.PackageName)" 
           Manufacturer="!(loc.PackageManufacturer)" 
           Version="$(var.BuildVersion)" 
           Compressed="yes"
           Scope="perMachine"
           UpgradeCode="!(loc.PackageUpgradeCode)"
           ProductCode="!(loc.PackageProductCode)">

    <MajorUpgrade DowngradeErrorMessage="!(loc.DowngradeError)" />

    <MediaTemplate EmbedCab="yes"/>

    <Icon Id="icon.exe" SourceFile="$(WPF_Application.ProjectDir)\Images\logo.ico"/>
    <Property Id="ARPPRODUCTICON" Value="icon.exe" />
    
    <Feature Id="Main">
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="ApplicationComponents" />
    </Feature>
  </Package>
</Wix>

Local Variable

Below line represent a variable in Wix.

<?define BuildVersion= 1.0.0.0 ?>

We create variable by <?define ?> tag.

Above we created a variable with:

  • Name: BuildVersion
  • Value of Variable: 1.0.0.0

For accessing value of variable BuildVersion we use $(var.BuildVersion).

Please see below 👇🏻 image of for reference.

create-buildversion-variable

[Package] Element

In this section, we understand updated [Package] element.

<Package Name="!(loc.PackageName)" 
         Manufacturer="!(loc.PackageManufacturer)" 
         Version="$(var.BuildVersion)" 
         Compressed="yes"
         Scope="perMachine"
         UpgradeCode="!(loc.PackageUpgradeCode)"
         ProductCode="!(loc.PackageProductCode)">

</Package>

Name:

  • Sets the name of the package.
  • Value: !(loc.PackageName)
  • !(loc.PackageName) means, search for variable in Wix Localization file (in our case [Package.en-us.wxl] file), whose name is PackageName, and set its value here.

[!(loc.VariableName)] is how you call the value of variable define in Wix Localization file.

Please see below 👇🏻 image of for reference.

name-property-value

Manufacturer:

  • Sets the name of the company that created the software included in the installer.
  • Value: !(loc.PackageManufacturer)
  • !(loc.PackageManufacturer) means, search for variable in Wix Localization file (in our case [Package.en-us.wxl] file), whose name is PackageManufacturer, and set its value here.

Please see below 👇🏻 image of for reference.

manufacture-property-value

Version

  • Sets the version of the package.
  • Value: $(var.BuildVersion)
  • $(var.BuildVersion) means, search for variable in Wix Source file (in our case [Package.wxs] file), whose name is BuildVersion, and set its value here.

[$(var.BuildVersion)] is how you call the value of variable define in Wix Source file. They are also Local variables as we defined previously.

Please see below 👇🏻 image of for reference.

version-property-value

Compressed

  • Compressed files.
  • Value accepted: "Yes/true" OR "No/false"
  • Current Value: Yes

Please see below 👇🏻 image of for reference.

compressed-option

Scope

  • To define the installation scope of package:
    • Per-machine
    • Per-user
  • Value accepted: "perMachine" OR "perUser" OR perUserOrMachine
  • Current Value: perMachine

Please see below 👇🏻 image of for reference.

scope-options

UpgradeCode

  • The UpgradeCode attribute is important to recognize a package.
  • This property will is fix for every package.
  • This means once you define, we don’t need to change it when we release a new version of this package.
  • Value: !(loc.PackageUpgradeCode)
  • !(loc.PackageUpgradeCode) means, search for variable in Wix Localization file (in our case [Package.en-us.wxl] file), whose name is PackageUpgradeCode, and set its value here.

Please see below 👇🏻 image of for reference.

upgrade-property-value

ProductCode

  • The ProductCode attribute is important to recognize a package.
  • This property will is always change for every package.
  • This means we need to change it when we release a new version of this package.
  • Value: !(loc.PackageProductCode)
  • !(loc.PackageProductCode) means, search for variable in Wix Localization file (in our case [Package.en-us.wxl] file), whose name is PackageProductCode, and set its value here.

Please see below 👇🏻 image of for reference.

productcode-property-value

[MajorUpgrade] Element

In this section, we understand [MajorUpgrade] element.

<MajorUpgrade DowngradeErrorMessage="!(loc.DowngradeError)" />

MajorUpgrade

  • The MajorUpgrade Element is important to recognize a package.
  • It link with UpgradeCode code we discuss previously.
  • When we try to install a lower version than the version that’s already installed.
  • The DowngradeErrorMessage attribute let us specify a message to be shown.
  • The !(loc.DowngradeError) syntax is a reference to a localization string i.e. string message to shown.

Please see below 👇🏻 image of for reference.

major-upgrade-message

[MediaTemplate] Element

<MediaTemplate EmbedCab="yes"/>
  • [MediaTemplate] describe information to automatically assign files to cabinets.
  • Maximum numbers of Cabinet files = 999

[Cabinet] Files

  • They are files created with MSI.
  • We need to ship them with MSI for deployment.

Please see below 👇🏻 image of for reference.

cabinet-file

  • Personally I don’t like to ship extra files for deployment.
  • For this we embed cabinet files into MSI.
  • We do this by specifying “[EmbedCab]” property.
  • Set its value to “[yes]”.

[Icon] Element

Now we define [Icon] for MSI in Add Remove Program.

Please see below 👇🏻 code for reference.

<Icon Id="icon.exe" SourceFile="$(WPF_Application.ProjectDir)\Images\logo.ico"/>

Please see below 👇🏻 image of for reference.

icon-element

We define 2 properties for [Icon] element.

  1. Id
  2. SourceFile

[Id] : Id of Icon file. [SourceFile] : Path to Icon file.

Values we used.

[Id] : icon.exe

  • It is important to write extension of file, on which we want to show icon.
  • Not the file which we are referencing.
  • In our case, we want to show icon for exe file.

[SourceFile] : $(WPF_Application.ProjectDir)\Images\logo.ico

  • In above line, we are giving path to our icon file.
  • Icon file is present inside “Images” folder of our Application project.
  • To access reference project we use [$(WPF_Application.ProjectDir)]

[Property] Element

Now we define [Property] for application icon of MSI in Add Remove Program.

Please see below 👇🏻 image for reference.

icon-in-add-remove-program

For this we need to use [Property] element and define its special ID and assign value of that special ID.

Please see below 👇🏻 code for reference.

<Property Id="ARPPRODUCTICON" Value="icon.exe" />

As shown in above code sample:

  • Tag = Property
  • Id = “ARPPRODUCTICON”
  • Value = “icon.exe”

[Feature] Element

Already explained in previous 🚀 Understand Wix V4 Project article.

[ComponentGroupRef] Element

Already explained in previous 🚀 Understand Wix V4 Project article.

<ComponentGroupRef Id="ApplicationComponents" />

I have renamed the [Id] from “[ExampleComponents]” to “[ApplicationComponents]”.

[Build] Solution

Now we need to build solution as shown below.

build-solution

After building solution we need to go to folder where MSI is created.

Please see below 👇🏻 image for reference.

open-msi-folder

Final Result

Run the MSI to install application.

Below image show final result after running installation.

final-result

That’s it!!!

Hope this post helps you.

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Till then, Happy learning!!!

Updated: