Application runtime prerequisites run too early…

[Steve]

When I have selected some application runtimes to be included in my installation such as ‘Microsoft Server Express 2005’, .’NET Framework 2.0’, ‘Microsoft VB Virtual Machine 6.0’, I notice that upon running my installation package, it displays a screen telling me that the listed prerequisites need to be installed first. The installation then proceeds through the prerequisite installations and completes them properly but then the application installation really begins by displaying the ‘Welcome’ and ‘LicenseCheck’ screens.

The first impression of this is that it is really counterintuitive to the purpose of the installation. The reason that I say this is that if IA installs all the prerequisites (which is quite a lengthy procedure) and then displays the Welcome screen and License Check afterwards, those screens are displayed too late to be of any significant use. For example, should the user decide (or is not able) to proceed with the installation, the 10 minutes that it took to install the prerequisites become a complete waste of time. The user must then manually uninstall each of those prerequisites (since IA does not uninstall them itself).
The Welcome screen and License Agreement Check should occur prior to the prerequisites being installed. This is my belief as to the fundamental intent of the ‘Welcome' and ‘License Agreement Check’ screens.

Is there some method to controlling the order that these screens fire in? And if so, what purpose does it serve for IA to function in what appears (at least superficially) to be such a counterintuitive manner?

Thanks in advance,
Steve

[tltaylor76]

I understand where you are coming from. I initially had this same impression. But once I turned this over to QA and the testers, they actually preferred this since the installation is not technically part of the prereqs. We ended up adpoting this approach. However, if you choose to run the prereqs after the welcome, license, etc. then just update your MSI Code to run the prereq installation further down in your installation and execute this when and how you would like.

One thing I have learned is that IA has done a good job of allowing you to customize the install to your specific needs...including the prereqs. You are just seeing the default template behaviour.

[Steve]

Hi Trent. Thanks very much for your repsonse.

I can certainly understand your QA groups perpective.
My difficulty lies in the fact the the required prerequisites take so long to install, that we want to save the user the time and frustration should they be unable to proceed with the installation.

I can't really seem to determine where or how make the changes needed in order to run the prereq installation further down in my installation.
Would you be able to provide some additional details on how to do this?

Thanks very much,
Steve

[MichaelNesmith]

Steve,

Everything that happens in your setup is spelled out, line by line, in the MSIcode script. The visual designers simply emit and update this script for you.

What this means is that nothing happens behind the scenes, and you can go ahead and customize everything. The script is pretty straightforward to read and understand, and there is no chance of making a syntax error since each script command is edited using visual dialog boxes.

So I'd just read the script and then it should be obvious where to move the pre-built template code.