Creating a .NET Windows Installer – Part 1

Editor's Note: This article's code has been updated to work with the final release of the .Net framework.

There's been a great deal of discussion about .NET's new "zero-touch" or XCopy deployment features. However, if you're developing an application that you want to distribute to multiple users (or sell as package), you still need a more convenient, automated approach. Visual Studio .NET provides this solution with its native support for Windows Installer (MSI) projects. These projects can be used to make setup programs that selectively copy files, create shortcuts and registry settings, and incorporate user input. In this article, we'll consider how to use Visual Studio .NET to build a simple setup program for a .NET desktop application.