Vinga Shareware and freeware

Ini file

[Setup]
Title=MyProg Setup
MSI=MSI\MYPROG.MSI
; CmdLine=
; CmdUpgrade=
; CmdMaintenance=
; CmdDowngrade=
; MSIVer=1.10.1029.0 You can override this version in the OS specific section. 1.10.1029.0 is default

[WinNT]
SupportedVer=4.0 ; 5.0 for Windows 2000
; MSIVer=1.11.0.0
InstMSIPath=WinNT\InstMsi.exe
; InstMSIUrl=http://www.mysite.com/howtoinstallmsi.htm

[Win9x]
SupportedVer=4.0 ; Win95=4.0, Win98=4.10, WinMe=4.90
MSIVer=1.11.0.0
InstMSIPath=Win9x\InstMsi.exe
; InstMSIUrl=http://www.mysite.com/howtoinstallmsi.htm

[Msg]
; Msg009=Reboot now!!!

A minimal ini file could look like this:

[Setup]
Title=MyProg Setup
MSI=MSI\MYPROG.MSI

[WinNT]
SupportedVer=4.0
InstMSIPath=WinNT\InstMsi.exe

[Win9x]
SupportedVer=4.0
InstMSIPath=Win9x\InstMsi.exe

If any of the entries [WinNT]\SupportedVer or [Win9x]\SupportedVer is missing, the program can not be installed on that operating system and you get an error message saying "Operating system not supported".

How it works

VSSetup launches MsiExec. The command line used when launching MsiExec is formed as follows:

The name of the MSI file is always added to the end of the command line.

Any external parameters passed to the exe are always put at the start of the command line.

If the parameter CmdLine has been specified it is used without further processing. This can be useful if you always want to launch it with the same parameters.

If no CmdLine is specified, a check is made to see if the same product is already installed.

If an older version of the product is already installed, add CmdUpgrade to the command line. If no CmdUpgrade is specified, "REINSTALLMODE=vomus REINSTALL=All /i" is added. VSINSTALLEDVER is added specifying the installed version.

If a newer version of the product is already installed and CmdDowngrade is not specified, show message Msg011 and then exit with exit code 6. If CmdDowngrade is specified add it to the command line and then add VSINSTALLEDVER to specify the installed version.

If the product is not already installed or the same version is installed, CmdMaintenance is added to the command line. If no CmdMaintenance is specified, just "/i" is added.

If the program is run on Windows NT/2000 and the WinNT parameter is not specified, or if the program is run on Windows 9x and the Win9x parameter is not specified, the user is told that the OS is not supported.

The program checks that version 1.10.1029.0 or later of Windows Installer is installed. The required version can be changed by specifying MSIVer for all OS versions in the Setup section or in the OS specific WinNT or Win9x sections.
If the correct version of Windows Installer is not found on the computer, the InstMsi.exe specified with the InstMSIPath setting in the WinNT or Win9x section is executed. If there is no InstMSIPath setting and  InstMSIUrl is specified the default web browser is launched to display the URL. This can be used to give detailed instructions to the user how to install or upgrade Windows Installer.
If neither InstMSIPath nor  InstMSIUrl is specified error message 010 is displayed.

The parameter Title is used in any dialogs.

The settings found in the ini file are expanded with the Win32 API function ExpandEnvironmentStrings. This means that any strings enclosed between % and is also an environment variable, will be substituted for that variable.

Some command line parameters that are used by MsiExec are also identified by VSSetup. If /qb is found on the command line VSSetup will not show any modal dialog boxes. If /q is found, no UI will be displayed at all. If the text "REBOOT=ReallySuppress" is found, no automatic reboot will be done by VSSetup if Windows Installer was upgraded. Instead return code 1 is returned.

Setting up the dialogs

To present a nice UI when an upgrade is made, you should make sure that a proper dialog is presented in this case. You can use VSSetupTempl.msi as a template for how to set up the dialogs. The dialog called "Patch dialog" will be displayed when an upgrade is made. (Especially the conditions in the InstallUISequence are interesting.)

A few examples

If you always want to launch the installation as "MsiExec /i", specify CmdLine=/i. This can be useful if you do not support upgrades.

If you want to perform an upgrade that does not rewrite all registry settings, specify CmdUpgrade=REINSTALLMODE=vo REINSTALL=All /i

If you want to make an unattended installation that upgrades if another version is installed and repairs if the same version is installed, specify CmdUpgrade=REINSTALLMODE=vomus REINSTALL=All /qb /i and CmdMaintenance=/qb /f

Return codes

Languages

VSSetup has built in support for English, German and Swedish. The language will be automatically selected based on the computer settings. (Ask Thomas if you want to make other translations.)

You can replace any messages by specifying it in the Msg section of the ini file. These are the messages:

Licensing

You may use and distribute VSSetup as much as you like as long as you do not modify the exe file.

History

Download

Download the latest version of VSSetup here.