Good resources for learning how to create MSI installers from WiX

Question

I've given up trying to apply lipstick to the pigs of installers that come out of Visual Studio and have decided to look at WiX.

What resources would you recommend to learn and reference?

(Note - this is not a which-installer-technology-do-you-use question - it's specific to WiX.)

cristianlibardo_16526 · Answer

<ul>
<li>The <a href="https://www.firegiant.com/wix/tutorial/" rel="noreferrer">WiX tutorial</a> is the #1 resource</li>
<li>The people on the <a href="http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/mailinglist/" rel="noreferrer">mailing list</a> are very helpful</li>
<li>There's a The Code Project article, <em><a href="http://www.codeproject.com/KB/install/WixTutorial2.aspx" rel="noreferrer">Creating an installer using Wix v3.0, Votive, and Visual Studio 2005/2008 - Part 2, the GUI</a></em> that might help</li>
<li>Ther's a bunch of blogs, I keep bumping into <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/robmen/default.aspx" rel="noreferrer">Rob Mensching's (old)</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://robmensching.com/blog/" rel="noreferrer">Rob Mensching's new blog</a>. </li>
<li>I haven't read <del><em><a href="http://www.dalun.com/wix/" rel="noreferrer">WiX - Windows Installer XML</a></del></em> (broken link), but I found it in my bookmarks</li>
<li>This <a href="http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/105638/A-quick-introduction-Create-an-MSI-installer-with" rel="noreferrer">code project tutorial</a> outlines the bare minimum and builds up from there</li>
</ul>

Chris_Fournier_2134 · Answer

One of the best ways I found to learn WiX was to take an existing MSI that did something I wanted to do, and used the Dark decompiler to generate a WiX script from it, and then I read that.

Ryan_20198 · Answer

From first glance From MSI to WiX seems fairly comprehensive.

Rob_Mensching_23852 · Answer

I have to add wix-users@lists.wixtoolset.org. That's where everyone hangs out and asks/answers questions as they come up. Just lurking on that mailing list will provide lots of real-time education on the WiX toolset.

user_17787 · Answer

Even though it's not only related towards WiX, the book from Apress:

The Definitive guide to Windows Installer By Phil Wilson link

It helped me to understand the installation processes. It's a good book to have when writing installers.

bott_44462 · Answer

If you understand German, then read the articles in the Entwickler Magazin, edition: 2008-05, 2008-06 and 2009-01.

A follow-up will be published in 2009-02, with more developing stuff (MSI API).

Good resources for learning how to create MSI installers from WiX

11 Answers