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Installing MSI from the Installation Source

Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 10:21 am
by Gareth Owen
We have on particular application that requires the MATLAB Component Runtime, this comes in a 100MB msi.

Our application is only 7MB so I was wondering if it is possible to link to this MSI located on the installation CD rather than in the Support Files section which gets incorporated with the application install.

In this case, we have to send out a 100MB installation rather than a 7mb one.

Being picky I know, but thats what we want. :wink:

Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:09 am
by sinan
Absolutely. As long as you know what path the MSI lies on the CD, use the (Un)Install MSI Setup plug-in to execute that MSI, providing the full path of the file. You do not need to add that to your project as a support file if you are guaranteed that your setup will always run from the CD and the file will always be there on the CD.

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:51 am
by Gareth Owen
Do we just use a relative path?
Is there a variable that contains the source directory of the installer?

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:00 am
by Gareth Owen
I have found a similar issue with the Run Program function.

I have managed to get the installation to work using the uncompressed version, but it does not seem to work when using the Single ExE version which is the one we want on the CD.

I am now trying to do a basic CD autorun app, which works ok in the debug mode, which does not compress the install, but as soon as I put it in a single exe,

No running programs. :cry:

Any ideas?

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 10:29 am
by sinan
I think you have a path problem, but thats very easy to fix. The installer SFX's path can be accessed using the global variable $SFXPATH$. This variable will be empty with uncompressed builds, since no SFX is involved.

Tip: Look in the online help index for Pre-Defined Variables to see a list of all pre-defined setup variables - they are very helpful.

Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 6:02 am
by Gareth Owen
Thanks, thats it, I did not manage to find this in the help, guess I was looking for the wrong thing :oops: