Nested install

[Bob T Bunny]

Hi all,

I am wanting to do a nested install. Our situation is that every month we send out data files to our customers, and about every 4-6 months we send out program updates, which include the data updates. So I had the bright idea that I could do an install for the data files, and then an install for the program, which then starts the data file install.

Is there a way to either:
Build an InstallAware as an .msi, not a full .exe (I have seen some threads mentioning Group Policy, but I'd rather do it directly from IA if possible. From what I've read in the forums here, there seem to be some problems with this option.)
or
Launch an InstallAware installation (setup.exe) with something like Windows Installer's "/passive" option, so it just does an installation, using default values, showing progress only.

Is it possible maybe to launch Windows Installer and pass it the setup.exe as a command line option, or launch the setup.exe with an extract only option, to get to the msi to pass to Windows Installer?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Alex_Ronquillo]

Bob,

Group Policy is an option that is inside IA. You have to just build your exe and in design view select Group policy. That will make an MSI file out of your EXE built with IA.

[Bob T Bunny]

Thanks, that did the job. I see that can be run from the command line, which is great as well.

I'd like to make a suggestion that "Single MSI" be added as a build type in a future version, as it seems a number of people are using it, based on the number of posts in these forums. That would remove one step from the build process for users like myself.

I'm now trying to use MSIExec to install it, using the /passive switch, to just show the progress bar and no dialogs, and it's showing the full interactive gui.

I am using the /passive switch successfully with a MS install (happens to be SQL Management Studio msi) so I'm pretty sure I've got the command right.

Any suggestions?

Bob T