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copied!<ol> <li><p>Keep variables in a separate <code>wxi</code> include file. Enables re-use, variables are faster to find and (if needed) allows for easier manipulation by an external tool.</p></li> <li><p>Define Platform variables for x86 and x64 builds</p> <pre><code> <?if $(var.Platform) = x64 ?> <?define ProductName = "Product Name (64 bit)" ?> <?define Win64 = "yes" ?> <?define PlatformProgramFilesFolder = "ProgramFiles64Folder" ?> <?else ?> <?define ProductName = "Product Name" ?> <?define Win64 = "no" ?> <?define PlatformProgramFilesFolder = "ProgramFilesFolder" ?> <?endif ?> </code></pre></li> <li><p>Store the installation location in the registry, enabling upgrades to find the correct location. For example, if a user sets custom install directory. </p> <pre><code> <Property Id="INSTALLLOCATION"> <RegistrySearch Id="RegistrySearch" Type="raw" Root="HKLM" Win64="$(var.Win64)" Key="Software\Company\Product" Name="InstallLocation" /> </Property> </code></pre> <p><strong>Note</strong>: WiX guru <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/users/23852/rob-mensching">Rob Mensching</a> has posted an <a href="http://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2010/5/2/The-WiX-toolsets-Remember-Property-pattern" rel="nofollow noreferrer">excellent blog entry</a> which goes into more detail and fixes an edge case when properties are set from the command line.</p> <p>Examples using 1. 2. and 3.</p> <pre><code><?include $(sys.CURRENTDIR)\Config.wxi?> <Product ... > <Package InstallerVersion="200" InstallPrivileges="elevated" InstallScope="perMachine" Platform="$(var.Platform)" Compressed="yes" Description="$(var.ProductName)" /> </code></pre> <p>and</p> <pre><code><Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir"> <Directory Id="$(var.PlatformProgramFilesFolder)"> <Directory Id="INSTALLLOCATION" Name="$(var.InstallName)"> </code></pre></li> <li><p>The simplest approach is always do <a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/alexshev/archive/2008/02/15/from-msi-to-wix-part-8-major-upgrade.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">major upgrades</a>, since it allows both new installs and upgrades in the single MSI. <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/114165/how-to-implement-wix-installer-upgrade/724098#724098">UpgradeCode</a> is fixed to a unique Guid and will never change, unless we don't want to upgrade existing product.</p> <p><strong>Note</strong>: In WiX 3.5 there is a new <a href="http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix3/wix_xsd_majorupgrade.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MajorUpgrade</a> element which makes life <a href="http://www.joyofsetup.com/2010/01/16/major-upgrades-now-easier-than-ever/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">even easier</a>!</p></li> <li><p>Creating an icon in Add/Remove Programs</p> <pre><code><Icon Id="Company.ico" SourceFile="..\Tools\Company\Images\Company.ico" /> <Property Id="ARPPRODUCTICON" Value="Company.ico" /> <Property Id="ARPHELPLINK" Value="http://www.example.com/" /> </code></pre></li> <li><p>On release builds we version our installers, copying the msi file to a deployment directory. An example of this using a wixproj target called from AfterBuild target:</p> <pre><code><Target Name="CopyToDeploy" Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'">  <Copy SourceFiles="$(OutputPath)$(OutputName).msi" DestinationFiles="..\Deploy\Setup\$(OutputName) $(AssemblyFileVersion)_$(Platform).msi" /> </Target> </code></pre></li> <li><p>Use heat to harvest files with wildcard (*) Guid. Useful if you want to reuse WXS files across multiple projects (see my answer on multiple versions of the same product). For example, this batch file automatically harvests RoboHelp output.</p> <pre><code>@echo off robocopy ..\WebHelp "%TEMP%\WebHelpTemp\WebHelp" /E /NP /PURGE /XD .svn "%WIX%bin\heat" dir "%TEMP%\WebHelp" -nologo -sfrag -suid -ag -srd -dir WebHelp -out WebHelp.wxs -cg WebHelpComponent -dr INSTALLLOCATION -var var.WebDeploySourceDir </code></pre> <p>There's a bit going on, <code>robocopy</code> is stripping out Subversion working copy metadata before harvesting; the <code>-dr</code> root directory reference is set to our installation location rather than default TARGETDIR; <code>-var</code> is used to create a variable to specify the source directory (web deployment output).</p></li> <li><p>Easy way to include the product version in the welcome dialog title by using Strings.wxl for localization. (Credit: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/users/592/saschabeaumont">saschabeaumont</a>. Added as this great tip is hidden in a comment)</p> <pre><code><WixLocalization Culture="en-US" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/localization"> <String Id="WelcomeDlgTitle">{\WixUI_Font_Bigger}Welcome to the [ProductName] [ProductVersion] Setup Wizard</String> </WixLocalization> </code></pre></li> <li><p>Save yourself some pain and follow <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1602831/wix-one-file-per-component-or-several-files-per-component/1604348#1604348">Wim Coehen's advice</a> of one component per file. This also allows you to leave out (or wild-card <code>*</code>) the <a href="http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix3/wix_xsd_component.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">component GUID</a>.</p></li> <li><p>Rob Mensching has a <a href="http://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2010/8/2/The-first-thing-I-do-with-an-MSI-log" rel="nofollow noreferrer">neat way</a> to quickly track down problems in MSI log files by searching for <code>value 3</code>. Note the comments regarding internationalization.</p></li> <li><p>When adding conditional features, it's more intuitive to set the default feature level to 0 (disabled) and then set the condition level to your desired value. If you set the default feature level >= 1, the condition level has to be 0 to disable it, meaning the condition logic has to be the opposite to what you'd expect, which can be confusing :)</p> <pre><code><Feature Id="NewInstallFeature" Level="0" Description="New installation feature" Absent="allow"> <Condition Level="1">NOT UPGRADEFOUND</Condition> </Feature> <Feature Id="UpgradeFeature" Level="0" Description="Upgrade feature" Absent="allow"> <Condition Level="1">UPGRADEFOUND</Condition> </Feature> </code></pre></li> </ol>

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